Look, I love you
by HermyLuna2
Summary: All he cared about was her. Therefore she chose someone else **currently rewriting**
1. Wormwood and Asphodel

**Dear reader,  
This story is currently on hiatus. The reason is because I am forced to participate in a work experience project and along with applying for a job and 'research' (for my stories) there won't be enough time to write. So, there won't be any updates in 1-3 months. But I am not abandoning this.  
LOve and blessings,  
****The author**

Author's note: Like OlderShouldKnowBetter said about Pride &amp; Scorpius, if this story had been about the unpleasant wizard Livianus Stratford who fell in love with the sweet and gentle witch from unmagical parents Blossem Wilson who in turn chose for the admired, brave wizard Everett Carpenter, then it would have been 'mine'. But as you all know, the characters and storyline are made up by the creative J.K Rowling. I am merely hoping to create another 'missing moments' novel plausible with the canon for as much as my different personality and background will allow it. I am posting a disclaimer for lines that were directly copied from the books under each chapter.

Thanks a lot to Malebron, OCDdegrassi and other lovely reviewers here for pointing out grammar- and other mistakes. I used to keep my chapters short, but reading everywhere that people preferred long chapters, I decided to change it. I have rewritten this story into third perspective, seeing as most people seem to prefer that as well. To the anonymous guest reviewer: thanks for the review! I am sorry you thought the interpretation of Sev/Lily was unfair in this story. Still, different people have different interpretations of the characters and I think that is a great thing.

* * *

Chapter one: Asphodel and Wormwood

Mr. and Mrs. Evans, owners of their own small gardening company, lived in Cokeworth, English Midlands, at Church lane number 17. Cokeworth was an industrial town. Almost all the buildings in Cokeworth consisted out of the same light brown bricks as the big square cotton mill, whose great chimney spew storm colored clouds in the sky. A dark greenish grey river ran through the fringes of the town and eventually disappeared in the countryside that separated it from the nearest city, Brightford. In the west were coalfields, and barren land eventually ending in sea. On the other side was a large forest. Cokeworth had a small town center, consisting of a church located in a square building of light brown bricks, a grocery store, bakery, a clothing store, a charity shop and an apothecary. A few blocks further was a dingy pub and a fish-and-chips store. There was an elementary school, of which the stone-carved inscription above the door read: Teaching useful and dogmatic subjects since 1850. There was a sports field and there was one hotel, the Railview hotel, that looked out on a station for goods trains. Mr. and Mrs. Evans enjoyed their home, that they recently moved to because it helped them in getting more clients for their business. They had two small daughters, who greatly differed in temperament. Their oldest had cried a lot as a baby and had stayed somewhat moody ever since, but their youngest daughter had always been cheerful. On the other hand, their oldest daughter was very orderly while their youngest wasn't. There was one thing, however, that the Evans family never spoke of, that none of the other people in Cokeworth knew about. Mr. and Mrs. Evans weren't the only inhabitants who kept a secret. In the last house of the old, degenerated maze near the mucky river lived Mr. Snape with his wife and son. Mr. Snape worked in the coal mines and his wife in the cotton mill. Mrs. Foster from number ten had once found their son on the street clutching an old shoe someone had lost, crying that his parents were going to divorce, and she had been surprised to find out that his parents had made up with each other as soon as she had arrived with the boy. She had also been surprised about suddenly feeling an unexplainable urge to leave and just go home to occupy herself with her own life and that the dishes (which had been covered in partly molded food rests during the first glance she had stolen in the kitchen) had suddenly been clean after the few minutes later that she left, while she hadn't seen anyone there. Mrs. Snape and their son were different from the other people in town, so different even, that nobody of what they saw as ordinary people, such as Mrs. Foster, would believe it.

_Five years had passed_

Petunia Evans's light blonde hair, tied in a ponytail, sprung behind her when she walked and her pale greyish green eyes looked shortly in the direction of the river. Lily Evans was struggling to keep up with her, her thick dark red hair falling on her shoulders casually as her green eyes followed her older sister's gaze. The river houses looked depressing, and so dilapidated that Lily could hardly imagine people living in them. Lily stole a sideways glance at her sister and felt a little guilty. Petunia had said nothing else yet during their walk home together. She was accompanying Lily to and from school every day like their mother had asked, despite going to secondary school in a month, and looked longingly every day to the groups of girls that went shopping with each other instead...

"Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon. The little dog laughed to see such fun. And the dish ran away with the spoon!" Lily sang, hoping it would cheer her sister up. But Petunia did not laugh like the dog, so Lily went on. "Hickory dickory dock…"

"Lily, please! Act normally!" Petunia pleaded. Quickly she looked around, but after seeing that besides Mrs. Peters the streets were desolate, she sighed from relief. Lily wondered what was wrong. As they turned into Baker Street and walked past the familiar houses that were all the same, that Lily could still have pictured if she had gone blind, they arrived in the town's center with the nice shops. Mrs. Peters, the elderly wife of the police officer who worked at the second hand shop, was dusting off the few things that she had stalled out on a table outside, such as a gramophone. Usually Mrs. Peters waved, but not this time. She looked unhappy. Lily felt sorry for Mrs. Peters and waved at her. Upon seeing Lily, Mrs. Peters smiled and waved back. They walked on.

"Fortunately others haven't heard you, Lily" Petunia said at last. "That song…That song didn't make any sense!"

Lily pulled her closer. "I'm sorry! Hug!" she said.

"How was school today?" Petunia asked.

"Not very good." Lily answered honestly, not really wanting to remember how her bad grade for Maths was changed by someone else and everyone had accused her of cheating. She had been worried about taking home her assignment, because her mother was always so proud of her and Lily had been afraid of disappointing her. She didn't know who had done it and why. Often when she dreaded something, suddenly the problem got solved and she was grateful when that happened, but the solutions often created another problem. It was odd. "Please, don't tell" she added.

"It depends. Was it because you weren't paying attention in class?" inquired Petunia.

"No!" Lily said. Maybe that was partly true after all, but she had also done her best earnestly.

Petunia sighed. "Okay, fine." she promised.

Lily was very glad. "I love you, Tuney, you're the best sister I could imagine" she said, because she said it every time. Now, the corners of her sister's mouth lifted.

Not far from where the country land began, there was a road and a few blocks with houses with gardens. A skinny ten-year old boy with black, greasy hair cut in different lengths stood there wearing a coat way too large for him, looking a tad forgotten. Maybe the colonel and lieutenant of the enemy team are somewhere around here, Severus Snape hoped as his black eyes examined the strange part of town he found himself in, with new and bigger houses looking more colorful than any other neighborhood in Cokeworth, around a small deserted field made by asphalt surrounded by shrubbery that contained a metal frame with two what looked like wooden seats dangling from chains. Severus wondered what the use of it was. There was an unusual silence, the only audible sound consisted out of the buzzing of a bee. Severus liked this kind of silence. The Muggles that had made him end up here with their game were nowhere to be found. Muggles were non-magical people and they did not know Severus was a wizard. This was probably for the best, Severus thought. His mum had warned him frequently about the dangers of informing Muggles about the magical world, but at home, he had been keeping record of every day that had passed, not on a calender (too bloody expensive) but in a notebook he had received at school because as soon as he was eleven, he would start secondary education. Then his life would finally begin. On the 9th of January, he had been excited to turn ten years old, which meant that then he had been separated only one year and nine months from magical school. He had also hoped that his parents would divorce for his birthday, but like he had already expected, that wish hadn't been fulfilled. Nonetheless, it had been half a year ago, meaning that now he just needed to wait one more year and three months before he would go to Hogwarts…Suddenly, voices and footsteps disturbed the quiet. Severus automatically crouched down and searched for a gap in the branches to look through. With shame, he saw that it were just girls, but it were girls that he had never seen before, blonde and red-haired, who would answer his question because hey hurried towards the seats and hopped on them grabbing the chains. They walked backwards fast and pulled up their bare legs so that they swung forwards without touching the asphalt ground. Along with the movement of the chains, they stretched their pale legs and pushed them backwards, back and forth, so that they went higher and higher, their hair flowing and falling back on their shoulders and their skirts billowing. It had never occurred to Severus that such a thing existed, so out of curiosity he kept watching. Then it happened. When they couldn't go any higher, suddenly the red-haired girl's seat fell back empty as she had jumped forward into the air.

"LILY!" the blonde girl screeched in fear, giving Severus the impression that jumping off wasn't an usual part of the thing they were doing. He wondered what kind of girl was called Lily. It sounded a little sweet, like a diminutive, but he knew that it was also the name of a flower, he had learned that at biology. But that 'Lily' had jumped off wasn't everything. 'Lily' launched farther in the sky than she had jumped. Severus held his breath. Until that moment, even though he had been brought up with the knowledge about creatures such as dragons, threstals, pixies, veela and angels (though he had never quite believed in the latter, thinking they were reserved to the imagery of the one broken glass angel his father always insisted needed to be on the table at Christmas) he had thought of such a thing as impossible. Lily did not even have wings. Gracefully, she floated downwards all by herself and landed on her feet. Severus thought he had probably just imagined it. But his eyes had never fooled him before. Severus kept looking. He needed to know for sure what he had just seen. Then, suddenly, the door of one of the houses next to the playground opened, and a woman with thick brown shoulder-length curls wearing a flower dress came hurrying towards the two girls.

"Lily Evans! Petunia Evans! What happened?" the woman shouted breathlessly. Severus was stunned at the fact that apparently, the two girls were related. The girl apparently named Petunia was Lily's sister.

"Lily jumped off the swing!" Petunia answered without hesitation. She did not add anything else. Maybe there was something similar about their nose, or perhaps their ears, but to Severus, the similarities between Petunia and Lily ended there.

With a shocked expression, the woman that apparently was their mother examined Lily and took her to the pretty house she had appeared from. Disappointed that only the other girl remained, Severus nonetheless kept watching to see if she would do something unexpected too. Swinging higher and higher again, Lily's sister looked around. She let go of the chains like Lily had done. Then, Severus felt a blow against his temple, a dull pain went through his head and he automatically closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he saw a blurry at first, then sharp-looking sand-covered pink sandal lying next to him. The other girl now was a shaking heap on the ground wearing one piece of footwear, breathing loudly as if on the verge of tears. With trembling legs, she stood up and dusted herself off, looking darkly at the empty, shakily moving swing. Severus realized he had been right about Petunia not being like Lily. He nonetheless longed to impress someone with another letter in their surname too. Petunia's fallen sandal appeared next to her. Thoughtlessly, she put it on and walked away. Severus couldn't believe she hadn't even noticed that he had helped her with magic. Sighing in frustration, he left the playground to go look somewhere else. He needed to choose the right moment to reveal himself another day. He was still surrounded by the same houses from the same town that the warm July sun shone upon, but something about it was different.

Lily stood in the light, modern sitting room of her house, that had colorful, striped curtains and wooden furniture with blue and orange cushions, and a floor of white laminate.

"Why did you do such a dangerous thing?" Lily's mother addressed her strictly, with her hands on her hips. "You could have been hurt!"

"I'm sorry" Lily whispered, "but it was lots of fun!" She did not understand why her mother and Petunia were making such a big problem about the exciting experience she'd had. If they would just try it for themselves, they would realize that there was nothing dangerous about it at all, in fact, it had been surprisingly calming, she thought, but she didn't say that, because in the rare cases that it happened, her mother didn't tolerate any retort when she was lecturing her.

"Fun! You can have lots of fun just swinging without additional dangerous actions too. I will tell Petunia that you aren't allowed to jump from the swing anymore" her mother continued.

The excitement that Lily had felt quickly disappeared. She didn't agree, but she nodded to make her mother believe that she did. Immediately, her mother's expression softened, and Lily was glad for that. She filled a watering can and watered the new purple periwinkles on the table.

"Aren't they lovely?" Mrs. Evans asked cheerfully. "They are popular. A couple of families here and in Brightford want a complete make-over of their garden, completed before the end of summer, and they want it filled with rocks and periwinkles."

"That's nice! They are beautiful!" Lily said. She hoped they were going to the garden centre soon. She liked the garden centre. They had everything related to gardens there, from brightly colored flowers from the rainforest to lawn mowers and aviaries with birds.

"Why don't you ask Tuney if the two of you could help with dinner together?" Mrs. Evans asked. She often thought up things that Lily and Petunia could do together. Lily always enjoyed doing things together with Petunia, she enjoyed helping her mother out, and she enjoyed helping to prepare dinner, so when Petunia came back from the swings, she walked towards her and told her about the idea.

Petunia's nose wrinkled. "Alright, if mummy asked..."

Lily felt bad for Petunia, because she never liked any of the things their mother always suggested them to do together. She wished that Petunia could enjoy her life a bit more. However, Lily didn't say that out loud, because every time she had done so Petunia had assured her in a voice as if she was a baby that she was fine and that Lily didn't need to concern herself with her, thank you very much. As they silently cut the leek, carrots and onions, Mrs. Evans peeled the potatoes, humming. Lily took the butter and minced meat from the refrigerator and Mrs. Evans put on the gas and lit it up with a matchstick. After she instructed Lily to be careful, she put the meat and vegetables in the pan. Mrs. Evans boiled water for the potatoes in the stockpot. Lily was always allowed to put in the herbs because it was her favorite part. Carefully, she broke off the right amount of rosemary, thyme and laurel and shred it in the pan. Petunia poured in the tomato juice and worchester sauce and then it was done.

Mr. Evans returned from doing the business administration. "Finally, I'm done." he said. "It smells really nice in the kitchen".

"Lily and Petunia have helped me all on their own." Mrs. Evans said in a delightful tone.

"How good of you both! Getting along well!" Mr. Evans said proudly.

Then, Petunia suddenly noticed something on the kitchen table. "The leek! Lily, you forgot the leek!" she yelled.

Lily noticed, too, that the raw leek was still on the kitchen table, and that she forgot to add it. "I'm sorry" she mumbled.

"Oh, well, it will taste good without it too." Mrs. Evans said calmly.

Lily was relieved, but Petunia screamed: "I cut it! I could as well have done nothing! It adds the flavour!"

"What do you think, love? Shall we wait a few more minutes before dinner's ready?" Mrs. Evans asked Mr. Evans.

"I'm hungry right now" Mr. Evans protested, in a lighthearted tone. "But we have to, then…"

"It's all because of Lily" Petunia said. "She's just careless".

"I'm not!" Lily protested loudly. "I forgot!"

"Girls, don't argue!" Mr. Evans said, and they stayed silent as the pie went back into the oven.

When the pie was finally ready, Mrs. Evans put a piece on everyone's plates. The salt and pepper were near Lily's. Petunia looked at it.

"Could I have..." she began, looking at Lily and then at the table.

"Of course, Tuney." said Lily in her most cheerful voice and passed over the salt, and when Petunia looked back at her gratefully and replied with "Thank you", she knew their argument was fortunately over. After dinner, Petunia and Lily were allowed to watch the household commercials on television that Petunia didn't want to miss. Lily's thoughts wandered from jingles about milk to the great feeling of jumping off the swing.

Petunia poked her. "Are you even watching?" she asked.

"Yes, I am!" Lily lied.

"Which steam cleaning service is more expensive, then, Suffolk Steaming or Cleango?" Petunia asked suspiciously.

Lily's head felt heavy. "I don't know" she admitted.

"It's Topclean Pro, of course." Petunia said, sounding impatient. "Everyone in the street uses it. When I have my own house with my own family one day, that is the one I'm going to choose!"

When Lily had failed to come up with an enthusiastic reply, Petunia dropped the subject and started talking about the messed up haircut of her best friend, Yvonne. When a documentary started that their parents wanted to see, she left to do her homework, because in the last year of elementary school 'everything changed', and she needed to prepare for her secondary education at a school called St. Adelaides All Girls Boarding School, because that was necessary 'when you want to amount to something someday'. Lily didn't look forward to getting more Maths tests. Instead, she half-watched videos of nature along with her parents, before she opened her own schoolbook. After she had made some calculations that she did understand, she put it aside as inconspicuously as possible and started browsing her favorite book about herbs and their uses since the Middle Ages, that Petunia disliked because of its old smell, and a book about old legends of Britain that Petunia had thought of as a strange birthday gift compared to her own makeup set, that she wasn't allowed to use until she turned thirteen, and a set of her own elaborate dusters that she had received because of her screaming about the dead cockroach she had once found behind her bed.

It was morning and misty outside. Tobias Snape sat slumped lazily in a threadbare chair in the sitting room of the last old terraced house by the old mill. He had already started drinking to relieve his hangover from yesterday, and part of his honey-brown hair was sticking to his face. The expression in his eyes was dull and sharp at the same time.

"Severusss.. My wizard son..." he sung slurred and painfully out of sync by means of a morning greeting when his son silently appeared into the room. Tobias took another gulp of beer and belched. Severus ignored his father, and so did his mother.

"You don't give me any applause?" Tobias asked in mock indignation.

"Like you deserve it, for being shitfaced every day, while I need to do all those household chores" Eileen Snape née Prince said.

Tobias laughed mirthlessly. "With that magic of yours you don't even have to do anything, and still it's filthy as a pig shed here. You're useless." he told his wife.

"Have you heard anything from your boss lately?" Eileen asked with a sly undertone.

"None of your business" Tobias spat.

"So it's still no promotion then, hmm?" she prodded.

"I will get a promotion one day, you'll see" Tobias answered in a raised voice. "Stuck-up git just needs to realize how bloody hard I work, all the dangers I face because of that stupid prick. TOFFEE-NOSED PRATS! SHIT JOB! SHIT GOVERNMENT! SHIT LIFE!" he exploded in his usual rant.

Eileen stared in the distance with an expression that had, long ago, made Tobias compliment her with what he called her 'melancholic eyes'. "Don't worry. It will turn out alright." she hushed tonelessly.

"In the meantime, hand me another bottle." Tobias demanded.

Now, Eileen was pulled out of her trance. "Go to the pub!" she shouted back.

Tobias stood up and angrily approached her, until they were only a few inches apart. "I will." he said softly. "And I won't come back until midnight" He grabbed his coat, left and slammed the door.

"No! Wait!" Eileen shouted, but Tobias didn't look back. Severus felt relieved, although his mother's expression was far from happy. Like always, Severus went upstairs, to his mother's room with forgotten magical objects, most of them books. This time, his eye fell upon a dusty, strange-looking box that he had never seen before. He box on a rickety table and opened it. It revealed a wooden board with a circle on it, containing three inner rings, and a hole in the middle. It also contained a velvet purple sack. Severus opened it. Brightly colored, marble-like stones rolled out of it. There was also an old, magical newspaper excerpt in it, with a yellowed black-and-white photograph of his mother on it, scowling in the camera. _Eileen Prince, Hogwarts Gobstones Champion, _it read. Out of curiosity, he put everything back in the box and took it downstairs with him.

"Mum" he asked, "what is this?"

His mother looked at the box like it was of no importance. "Oh, that is a magical game" she said indifferently.

"So you were a Gobstones champion at Hogwarts?" Severus demanded to know. His mother nodded. "I was the captain of the team.." she said dismissively.

"Can you teach me how to play it.." Severus began hesitantly.

Eileen sighed. "Why? Can't you figure it out yourself? It's not that difficult of a game..."

"You have nothing to do! And from the look of it, it requires more than one player!" Severus protested. His mother only worked in the mill for two days a week. Sighing even more deeply, Eileen eventually handed Severus fifteen of the red-yellow marbles and took the other fifteen, which were blue-purple, herself. Excited that he was finally going to learn the game that had brought his mother fame and glory at Hogwarts, Severus examined them. Although they slightly resembled marbles they looked like nothing he had ever seen before.

"You have different sorts of Gobstone games. Let's start with the classic one." His mother took seven of his Gobstones and carefully placed them in the middle of the circle, around the hole. She did the same with her own. Then, she hovered her hand over all the stones and they suddenly jumped and floated around until all were randomly placed somewhere on the circle.

"The rules are as follows..." she begun importantly. "You have to knock out your opponent's Gobstones out of the circle with yours. Ok, I start."

Eileen hunched forward and with her pink tongue sticking out in concentration she firmly tapped against one of her Gobstones with one of her thin fingers, aiming for the Gobstone of Severus that was the closest to the edge of the ring. It immediately rolled out of it and before he knew it, he was splashed in the eye by the stone with an odd bright-green liquid that smelled like their rubbish can when the rubbish bag had not been changed for a month. It was nasty. He cursed.

"I figured you'd found out." His mother said and she started to laugh, looking as if she was trying not to but failing, not even lecturing him about proper speech. She doubled over and while laughing loudly, tears from joy formed into her eyes.

Severus got a pleasant feeling of wanting to see the same thing happening to his mother. But to his dismay, the Gobstones didn't exactly behave like marbles. Not that he had much experience with marbles; once, a boy in the street had given him three out of pity and after a few games they had been lost. Unlike an ordinary marble however, the Gobstone did not roll towards the right direction after his strong tap; it bounced on the board and eventually came to an halt on a total unplanned spot, almost knocking one of his own stones out of the circle. Again he was sprayed with a foul-smelling liquid, making him growl in frustration. His mother was surprisingly good at keeping the Gobstones move in check; in a short amount of time, only two of his Gobstones had remained on the board. Severus seethed with frustration and couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed all seven of his mum's stones and placed them out of the circle by hand. But she wasn't sprayed with liquid.

"That's cheating what you're doing!" his mother protested angrily. "And look, it doesn't work. See? See how trying to take a shortcut is never a good idea?"

Severus nodded, disappointed.

"You'll only be able to succeed at magic if you do your bleedin' best." His mother said. "Then you can become a good wizard."

"Is it true that you can kill someone with magic?" Severus asked enthusiastically.

His mother's dark eyes suddenly look different, angry. "Where d'you wish to know that for?" she said in a sharp voice.

Severus immediately regretted letting curiosity get the best of him and pretended to be examining a colorful Gobstone. "Just because" he mumbled. Muggles would have another reason to be scared of him. Or maybe he could make something heavy fall on someone when they were mean, crushing them…

"Such a morbid one, you are!" his mother said angrily. Severus did not know what that meant, but he knew it was no compliment. She went on: "But yes, you can kill someone with magic, with the Killing Curse or a potion - I would advise you against it, though."

"Thanks for the explanation" Severus said, trying to keep his eyes from sparkling and quickly changed the topic. "What happened to my grandparents? Were my grandparents magical too?"

He did not expect to get answers. But his mother sighed. Suddenly, she sat a bit straighter. "I used to be noble – I mean, I still am noble." she said with a satisfied smile. "My family used to be very influential, and rich."

Severus didn't believe it. If that was true, then why did they live now in the poorest block of a town for poor working class people?

"Then what happened to my grandparents?" he asked.

"Your grandparents went to some foreign land for business." his mother said.

"That's cool. Can we visit them?" Severus wanted to know.

"No." His mother just stared into the distance with blank eyes. "They have never told me were they went, and they have cast an Anti-tracing spell."

"But...Why?" Severus didn't understand anything of it.

"Don't know." His mother answered, which only made her answer more vague. "They didn't approve of me marrying Tobias, you know!" Suddenly, she smiled, something she rarely did. "Everything used to be great, before…" Suddenly her smile disappeared and she stopped mid-sentence.

"Before what?" Severus asked.

"Before…before…" his mother struggled for words, "before I realized how annoying Muggle life could be!" she eventually said.

Severus laughed. "How come?" he asked.

"I think…I think it was because I had the wrong idea about Muggles." his mother stated. "I had heard stories about how awful they were, and when still at Hogwarts I did not want to have anything to do with them, I assure you. But then disaster struck me. I made a horrible mistake you should never, ever make. I don't want to talk about it. Eventually, my wand was broken in two and I received the old one from great aunt Finola when she died. That one is quite useless, but don't tell your dad".

Now Severus knew why her spells went wrong so often. "I won't. Promised." he said, wondering what that mistake has been. He hated it when people kept secrets for him, especially when it was his mum who did. She continued with a sepulchral voice: "I have done all sorts of gruesome magical jobs. Collecting potion ingredients such as Imp spittle, frog eyes, Unicorn vomit and seeds of the Venomous Tentacula, identifying human remains, being a Tester for potentially dangerous healing spells and cleaning every wand and corner in Olivander's wand shop - without magic, because it might disturb the magic of the wands themselves...But the absolute worst was my job at the Muggle Department at the Ministry of Magic. I had to read hundreds of Muggle papers every day, to see if there had been any magical accidents that made it necessary to Obliviate them. The papers were so incredibly boring, and I couldn't care less about things happening to Muggles. Maybe, I would've been able to stick with it if the work pressure wasn't so high. But I didn't… They fired me."

"It was worse than your other jobs?!" Severus cried out.

"Would you please stop interrupting me?" his mother said sharply. "Well, it wasn't exactly worse than my other jobs, but more tedious. Your grandfather, who had arranged the job for me, was enraged that I had wasted even this chance. I was a failure. I managed to find a Muggle job at the mill here and then I met your dad in the pub, seeing as he lived here, and I started dating him. Even though that was collaborating with the enemy -"

"Collaborating with the enemy? Why are Muggles enemies?" Severus asked, interested.

"Not only the Muggles...Nevermind…It didn't turn out to be as easy as I expected, I assure you!" his mother finished. She looked at an old photo of his parents together. It was the only photo of them in the house, and it was made by a Muggle photographer. Sometimes Severus looked at it too, wishing his real parents were a bit more like the normal-looking, happy couple on the faded yellowing photo.

"It was fun. I go outside" he said.

Excited, he walked towards the same neighborhood as the day before and crouched behind the bushes surrounding the playground, even though this time, he wasn't participating in any game. He knew it was rather strange to be watching two girls, and in any normal situation he would have thought of himself as having lost his mind, but this wasn't any normal situation. After all, he was waiting for the red-haired girl named Lily to jump off the swing again. She went higher and higher, just like the day before. Almost…Severus thought eagerly. Now…

"Lily, don't do it!" her sister shrieked, but Lily had already let go of the chains and plunged. Laughing loudly, she ascended into the sky until she fell down again and landed on the asphalt like an aerialist. Severus watched her breathlessly. It was really true! His eyes hadn't deceived him! He had known it all along, otherwise there wouldn't have been any use in watching, but still the realization shocked him. 'Lily' was really able to fly. That meant…she had to be a witch. The realization made him excited like the moment he had first heard about Hogwarts.

"Mummy told you not to!" Petunia said angrily, stopping her own swing. She was wearing the same sandals as she had the previous day. She was putting her hands on her hips. "Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!"

"But I'm fine!" Lily giggled. "Tuney, look at this! Watch what I can do!"

Lily walked straight in his direction, and Severus tried to calm his nerves. But Lily hadn't seen him; she walked to a spot close to his own to pick up a fallen flower. Severus was able to see her more clearly now. She had green eyes, so green that they almost looked yellowish, eyes like Severus had never seen before because as he was sure, no-one else had eyes like that. The color that matched it the closest had been the color of the bottle of chartreuse that his dad had been angry about receiving because he preferred whiskey. It had been a remarkable green, almost like Shrinking Solution. Lily's rust red hair lit up in the sun and her face was different from his own in a way that was fascinating in a way he had never thought about before. She was a girl, after all, but that was not the point. The flower was laying on the palm of Lily's hand and when Petunia, who had been glancing around, finally drew nearer, Lily stuck it out. The flower started moving its petals fast and slow like the many shells of some living, but deformed sea creature. They opened and closed as if the flower had been tricked in perceiving that it was dawn and dusk and dawn over and over again. Severus had never seen something more entrancing.

"Stop it!" 'Tuney' immediately shrieked.

"It's not hurting you" Lily retorted, but she closed her hand over the flower and threw it back on the ground again like it had been nothing.

"It's not right" Petunia went on, but her feeble gaze followed the floating flower after all. "How do you do it?" she wanted to know, and her voice sounded different, jealous. There was a silence.

Finally! Severus thought. This was his moment! He jumped out of the bushes on the playground. "It's obvious, isn't it?" he said, his voice sounding loud and clear.

Petunia ran away screaming. Lily had stayed on the same spot and when he looked at her, Severus suddenly became aware of his own appearance. He was wearing his new second hand coat that his mum had said was too big for him and looked ridiculous, though at that time he hadn't cared about her opinion at all because the way it flapped around him when he walked had made him feel like resembling a real wizard. He hoped that this was true.

"What's obvious?" asked Lily.

Lowering his voice, because it was their little secret, Severus said: "I know what you are".

Lily said she did not understand what he meant, and asked him.

"You're…you're a witch." Severus whispered. Now Lily finally knew that she was different from everyone else too. She would probably be glad. He couldn't wait to hear her reaction!

"That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody!" Lily told him off, as if he had insulted her. Haughtily, with angry steps, she walked back to her sister, as if she wanted to prove she was as right as she was and he had been mistaken.

"No!" Severus shouted loudly. It was going all wrong. The sun had no mercy and he felt sweat dripping down his back. He felt hotter than ever, but he didn't want to take off his coat because then he'd no longer looked like a wizard. He hurried towards Lily and Petunia, who had grabbed the poles of the swings. He felt like he was it without ever having agreed to play tag again. He explained things, that there was nothing wrong with being a witch, because his mum was one too. But then suddenly, Petunia started talking instead of Lily, making the word wizard sound like a taunt.

"I know who you are! You're that Snape boy!" she told him, and to Lily she told that he lived in Spinner's End down by the river. "Why have you been spying on us?"

By using the word spying, she made it sound as if looking at other people wasn't allowed without their approval. The sun was multiplying the hidden rain of sweat drops, making Severus's unwashed hair feel clammy and stick to his face. He had been watching them alright, but it hadn't been spying. If Petunia only knew what he could show her sister...

"Wouldn't spy on you, anyway" he said to her, because she had ruined everything, "you're a Muggle." Petunia looked as if he had punched her in the face. In an even shriller voice, she said that they were leaving. Unfortunately, the worst thing that could happen happened. Lily obeyed her sister throwing Severus one last look that said she couldn't care less whether he was a wizard or a Muggle as they walked away through the playground gate. It wasn't supposed to go like this, Severus thought. He had thought Lily would be happy to know a wizard. He had carefully picked out the moment he had thought would make him seem impressive, but as usual, everything had gone wrong. He swallowed back the biggest disappointment he had felt in a long time. It had just been a misunderstanding. Next time, he would set it right.

Petunia went to her room and Lily made a photo collage of pictures from their holiday in Cornwall previous year that her mother had admired in delight when it was done. She went to her sister's room to talk to her. She knocked, but when she got no reaction and heard classical music, she opened the door to see the familiar crispy-clean room with flower curtains. Petunia was practicing ballet moves that Lily didn't knew she could. Since she heard about Rose attending ballet classes, she had been full of it. Lily thought Petunia looked really graceful, until she tripped and bumped her head against the lamp.

"Lily!" Petunia shouted angrily, while tears were filling her eyes. "That was your fault! You startled me!"

"I'm sorry!" Lily apologized. She hadn't meant to. "Sometimes I do feel like…Something is wrong with me." she confessed. "Remember the swing, the flower? Maybe I really am a witch!" she said very quickly and she felt herself blush at the thought.

"Witches aren't real!" Petunia said loudly.

"So what do you think about that flower, then?" Lily whispered.

"You need to tell me your trick!" Petunia demanded.

"There wasn't any trick" Lily answered. "It just started moving on its own".

"That's impossible" Petunia said, and her face had turned slightly paler. Lily felt disappointed that her sister didn't believe her, but she understood that for someone who did not know how she had felt, it seemed very unlikely indeed.

"Don't talk about it ever again" Petunia added shrilly, crossing her arms. "It may bring bad luck."

Lily felt disappointed.

"And by the way, I still want to call Rose and Violet about the episodes of Days of Our Lives that I missed" Petunia said, which Lily knew, was a hint that she needed to go away.

Because she still kept thinking about what the boy from the playground had said, Lily decided to look if he was still there at the playground. He wasn't, so she walked further and further, until she heard footsteps behind her.

"Some think…that when you stop using magic, it will disappear" a voice behind her stated. Immediately, Lily spun around to see the 'wizard' boy standing there, pointing at her. She had vaguely remembered what he looked like, with that hair shining from dirt and that odd black coat, but there had been details she hadn't remembered, such as his sickly-looking complexion or strange excited expression in his eyes.

"Forever?" she asked.

"Yes, forever…" the Snape boy answered. "Perhaps you will never get it back once it's gone."

Lily made a mental note not to stop doing what Petunia called 'unnatural' things, just in case. "What did you say to my sister? Were you mean to Petunia?" she wanted to know.

"Come with me, I know a place where we can talk" the Snape boy said. He grabbed her arm and Lily let herself be dragged along with him, until they eventually arrived by the dirty river. Alongside the water was a strip of nature where no-one ever came. Lily followed the boy into an overgrown thicket. The trees stood close together, looking like knobbly archways. The green foliage lit up in the watery sun. The Snape boy sat down, so Lily did as well.

"Muggle is a word for someone unlike us…Someone without magic" he whispered.

"You made Petunia upset" Lily said.

"She became upset herself! I didn't make her!" the Snape boy said.

"So…what kind of things can your mum do?" Lily asked.

That seemed to catch the Snape boy off guard, but after a while he sighed: "Arguing. Today she said that even the dementors would pass by dad." He laughed and that, too, sounded strange. Lily, who thought she should have specified magical things, did not get the joke.

"But my mum is also really good at Gobstones, she has been a school champion at Hogwarts" Snape added quickly as if trying to redeem his mum, though how, Lily had not understood.

"Why did you laugh that moment before? What are dementors? What is Gobstones? And what is Hogwarts?" Lily wondered aloud.

"Dementors are creatures that take people's happiness" the Snape boy replied, "but then there needs to be something to take away." His voice had gotten the same tone as Lily's parents or Tuney when they explained a fact, which was curious, Lily thought, because she had never heard before about creatures that took someone's happiness before. "Gobstone's a magical game. It's like marbles. And Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry is the school for us magical folk, that I'm going to when I'm eleven" he added.

"Witchcraft?" Lily asked. "Do they teach at Hogwarts how to curse and poison others, and fly on a broomstick?"

"The casting of dark spells and curses and the brewing of poisons is only taught at Durmstrang." Snape started while his voice broke briefly from enthusiasm. "A really great school in Siberia. But at Hogwarts, they only teach about the Dark Arts to defend yourself against them. Disappointing, I know. However, Hogwarts is the only magical school of the United Kingdom and is regarded as one of the best magical schools in existence. There are not many prestigious magical schools to begin with - eleven worldwide. That's because there are more Muggles than magical people. Currently, there are 1000 or 600 students at Hogwarts. It's located in the highlands of Scotland, surrounded by one of its great lochs, the Black Lake. They only teach regular, that is more friendly spells and charms at Hogwarts, arithmancy, potions, care for magical plants and creatures, transfiguration, herbology, astronomy, ancient runes… The quality of the magical education there is really great. But they do also teach Quidditch, a very popular sport. They take in everyone…as long as you're a witch or a wizard, of course."

"Really?" Lily gasped. That school had sounded…brilliant. If she had heard it correctly…could it really be true? A school without Maths? Then she felt stupid. Of course not. There she was, believing that Snape boy again…And her mother shouldn't find out where she was, or she would never be allowed to play outside again.

'I have to go" she said and stood up.

"Wait! Tomorrow, by the river again?" the Snape boy asked. Lily doubted for a few seconds, then she said: "Okay, promised". Even if it was only because she didn't like to ignore people who asked her something. It was rude. And part of her had become even more curious.

Fortunately, when she stepped in the hallway and walked in the sitting room, there was no reaction from her parents that was out of the ordinary, probably they had just assumed she had gone to the playground again. Lily sighed from relief.

Petunia told a story about some old neighbor lady whose conversation she had overheard: "And she received the card three years after her sister was back from vacation".

"That's such a pity!" Lily laughed. Then she confessed: "Tuney, I talked to that boy again and he wasn't mean to you! A Muggle just means someone without magic. He apologized. There's a school for wizards and witches, and it's called Hogwarts…He told me…"

"Then he was lying to you again! There is no Hogwash" Petunia said immediately. "If that Snape boy doesn't leave us alone, I'll ask daddy if he will phone the police and then they will put him in a mental hospital for bothering strangers with offensive words. Where did he take you, anyway? I didn't see you anymore"

Lily, who had not realized that Petunia had watched her from the window, felt caught. "Nowhere!" she said.

"It was the strangest day ever…" she told her mother that evening when her mother asked her how her day had been.

* * *

_The scene of Severus revealing himself and talking to Lily and Petunia for the first time, including the lines "It's obvious, isn't it?" "What's obvious?", "No" and "Wouldn't spy on you anyway, you're a Muggle" comes from chapter 33 from the Deathly Hallows, page 663-665_


	2. Real for us

**Author's note: I only read recently someone's perceptive comment on the popular site I dislike very much, the Hogwarts letter does not arrive on a magical child's eleventh birthday. I don't know why I believed that, seeing as it was not a normal circumstance in which Harry received his letter. So I corrected the mistake!**

* * *

Chapter 2 It's real for us

The dawn was coloring the sky above Cokeworth a yellowish pink and purple hue. Severus yawned. His parents had argued again that night. When his father had brought up his mother's mistake, he had hoped to find out more about it, but then it had turned into another rant. Shivering, he walked into the room his mum kept her collection of books in. She was a book hoarder; both magical and Muggle books she collected, though Severus was mostly interested in the magical ones. As he was browsing them, he spotted a spell book that he had never seen before.

"Dark charms for the damned: Jinxes for the Jinxed, Hexes for the Busy and Vexed and Curses for the Cursed. Three spellbooks republished for the price of one' it read.

Severus was interested. He had no idea why his mother had this strange compilation book in her collection, but he didn't care. The book had been gathering dust like all of the books, but somehow even more than the others. Severus wiped the dust off and opened it. The content looked, at first glance, no different from the content of 'The standard book of spells'. It was just a list of spells with incantations and the way they needed to be pronounced, along with the correct wand movements. But at second glance, it was very different. None of the spells had good outcomes. The worse the effect was that they created, the better the authors considered them. The effects ranged from turning things into worms and knocking people over to stinging people's flesh and control, torture or even…kill them. Severus found it very interesting. Something like this was what he had always hoped to find. This was magic that actually made a difference, as opposed to those everyday spells. He didn't have a wand yet, but he could at least memorize those incantations for when he did have one! That would give him an advantage for when he started school. He decided to take the book to his own room and spent several hours memorizing, but instead of putting it on his shelf next to Hogwarts: A history, The standard book of spells, An introduction to our society, A history of magic, One thousand magical herbs and fungi, Fantastic beasts and where to find them, Quidditch through the ages and Book of potions when he was done, he hid it behind them, because he knew his mother was not going to approve of it. Then he decided to see if Lily had come to the river like he had suggested. The idea excited him. He walked downstairs and put on his wizard coat.

"Where are you going, Severus?" he heard the unpleasant voice of his dad, who was watching sport on his newly stolen television and complaining because yesterday he ruined his car again by driving against a tree (for some reason he always got out unscathed himself). Not again, Severus thought.

"Practicing football with Andrew." he answered. Andrew was a Muggle that his dad didn't hate, the son of a man that sponsored the local football team , that his dad still supported after discovering that the sponsors of the team of Brightford paid the players for losing. Severus hoped that the mention of him would satisfy his father.

"Yeah, I don't believe that." his dad sneered. "Since when do you have friends?"

"I always have had friends." Severus said and hoped his father would believe him and shut up, but his dad laughed.

"That's why I never see them. You've been wandering around town with no purpose all the time, people told me. They asked me if that weirdo they always see alone is my son". He paused a long time after that. "Trying to hide something? If I'll find out they have talked about you again you'll regret it!" his dad threatened. Their tv turned black and he cursed. Severus quickly opened the door and started running over the cobblestone path towards the river. His heart stopped when someone ran towards him, Lily. She was wearing green pants now, and a flowered shirt.

"What's your first name, by the way?" she asked in her girly voice.

"Severus Snape" he said. He expected her to laugh. To his surprise, that didn't happen.

"Please tell me more about magic, Severus" Lily said, and hearing his name in her voice made Severus like it for the first time. He felt his heart beat faster.

"Naturally." he said and they sat down on the same spot again.

"The weather's too nice to be wearing a coat" Lily pointed out.

"I'm good. I'm not warm at all." Severus said. He felt sweat dripping down his burning back. Finally, with hesitation, he discarded his dark wizard robes, exposing the Muggle outfit underneath. He looked at Lily to see if she had changed, but to his relief, she didn't even look at it.

"Please, tell me more about Hogwarts" she whispered. "What can you learn there again?"

Severus sighed. He had been waiting to answer this question from someone for years. No-one else ever cared about Hogwarts, or had wanted to listen to him before. "Defense Against The Dark Arts." he begun, his voice a bit louder. "There are certain spells and curses – dangerous ones – that are not allowed, not even in the magical world. They can hurt badly, or kill you. It's necessary to know how to shield yourself against them. Spells and charms – every kind. Simple household ones, but also ones that could control the weather or make things change their form. Astronomy –studying the movement of the stars, planets and the constellations, because they are thought to be an influence on magical ability. History of magic – the history of the magical world. Herbology – there you are being taught about the magical plants and how to care for them. Potions – that's brewing concoctions with special abilities. You can brew potions that heal people, or make them sick. Transfiguration – you can learn to transform every object possible. If you want to turn a dinner plate into a mushroom, or vanish things, you can. You could even turn yourself into an animal, but that requires a lot of skill. Quidditch – that's flying, on a broomstick, a very popular sport…Students can choose to sign up for the team, I bet you'd be good at it. Alchemy – the study of changing metals and creating the elixir of life. Arithmancy – predicting the future with maths and numerology. Apparition – making yourself appear at any given location. It's cool, but it can be quite dangerous though. Ancient Runes – the study of ancient runic scripts of magic, to discover ancient spells and curses. They have created ways to control magic for over ten thousand years. Care of Magical Creatures – there you learn more about magical creatures. We have a lot of them, you know. From Manticores to Chizpurfles and Basilisks. Divination – that's not really a subject, it's just superstition. And Muggle Studies, but that's useless."

Lily was wide-eyed, listening with her mouth hanging open slightly. "I'm ten. I'll go to secondary school soon. It's a Muggle one, where they just teach regular subjects." she said while staring regretfully in the distance.

"No, you won't." Severus promised. "You'll get an invitation for Hogwarts in a year, too. By owl."

"Really? By owl?" Lily gasped. "Splendid! Will I have to do homework at …Hogwarts?"

"You need to read books, but you can't practice." Severus said. "You're only allowed to perform magic during the lessons, not even in the corridors, and the Ministry can punish you if you do magic outside school, you'll get letters."

Severus needed to assure Lily that this rule didn't apply to them yet. She picked up a broken twig from the earthy ground they were sitting on and in her hand it became a wand that she was twirling gracefully. He enjoyed looking at it, because from the sight of it, wand-waving was a natural talent of Lily. Nothing happened yet, but soon she would get a real wand together with him. She doubted it because of her lying sister. Severus assured her that Hogwarts was only real for the two of them, and that someone would explain everything to her Muggle parents.

"Does it make a difference, being Muggle-born?" Lily suddenly asked.

Of course it made a difference. In "An introduction to our society" by Irven Selwyn Severus had read that Purebloods were worth the most, then half-bloods, then Muggle-borns, then Squibs and lastly Muggles. But Lily would never want to see him again if he said that. Severus looked her again. Lily's unusually red hair and her unusually pale face was lit up by the golden green light shining through the trees. Her green eyes, bigger than his own, were luminous like foxfire. He said that it didn't make a difference. Severus knew he'd said the right thing, because Lily looked relieved. He commented on her magical ability, but she was not listening anymore. She was lying on her back, on the soft grass, staring at the sky...

"How are things at your house?" Lily suddenly asked.

Severus had thought that this conversation was about Hogwarts. He couldn't care less about things at his house. He didn't understand why Lily would want to bring up such an uninteresting topic. "Fine" he said immediately.

"They're not arguing anymore?" Lily asked.

_"You disgraced me and my family with your filthy lie..." _

_"It - it was no lie! I did not know..."_

_"YOU'RE LYING AGAIN! DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID?"_

_"I - I regret it, too...But he doesn't eat a lot and his clothes are second hand...Come on"_

_"You're regretting your own son? You cold-hearted-"_

_"You nasty hypocrite! Last time I checked, you hated him!" _

_"W__hat he turned out to be is all your goddamn fault! He's nothing like me!"_

_"If you hadn't been threatening to leave me..."_

Severus confirmed that they were still arguing. He suddenly saw that he was holding a bunch of torn leaves. He shrugged it off with that he would be gone soon anyway, but Lily asked whether his dad likes magic.

"He doesn't like anything, much." Severus answered shortly. Then Lily called him by his first name again.

"Yeah?" he encouraged.

"Tell me about dementors again" she instructed.

Severus was really glad that they were talking magical topics again, and asked why she wished to know about them for.

"If I use magic outside school-" Lily begun. He reassured her that someone was not sentenced to the dementors so quickly, especially not someone like her. When he thought about it he almost said out loud the thought that was secret, that he thought she was too lovely for that, but at the same time he wondered what it would be like to be a dementor. Then he heard a rustling sound behind the trees. It was Lily's sister! She had been eavesdropping all the time. It frightened Severus. Did she hear, could she tell? Lily called Petunia's name as if it was a really nice surprise, but he didn't think so. He asked Petunia who was spying now, and what she wanted. Now it was the other way around. Now Petunia was the one that needed to leave.

"What is that you're wearing, anyway?" Petunia suddenly pointed out. "Your mum's blouse?"

Severus hated Lily's sister. He hated the sight of her ugly face. He hated how she just kept standing there, like it made no difference that this time she was the one who had been spying. CRACK! A branch from the tree Petunia had been standing underneath hit her, and she walked back faltering. Lily screamed. Petunia started crying. Lily shouted Petunia's ugly name, but she had started running, not looking back. Severus thought it was obvious she was not really hurting and trying to get sympathy, but Lily was asking him if he did it. It had been an accident; he hadn't planned to do it.

"No." Severus said.

But it didn't make a difference. "You did!" Lily shouted, backing away from Severus, which felt like he was also hit by a branch. "You did! You hurt her!"

Severus insisted that he didn't because he was scared that Lily wouldn't like him anymore, but she already looked at him like she had done the first day and shared herself by her sister's side again. When they were both gone again Severus kicked against the leaves. Once they would both get the letter, Lily and him, everything would change.

Lily and Petunia were sitting on the sofa drinking tea. Petunia swallowed back her tears. If I hadn't followed Severus to the river, then Petunia wouldn't have followed us and he wouldn't have hurt her, Lily thought, feeling guilty. Letters from owls, going to a magical school, a prison called Azkaban, a Ministry of Magic. Her head spun from all the strange and interesting new information, but she couldn't enjoy it anymore.

"Petunia, what happened?" their mother asked.

"I fell." Petunia answered, not looking back at her. "And I hurt my shoulder really badly."

"May I look at it?" Mrs. Evans asked. Petunia nodded and cried out from pain when their mother touched her shoulder. "Oh, it's just a bruise." Mrs. Evans said. "It will go away in time. Don't worry, Tuney."

"Alright, fine! I prefer to be alone right now" Petunia yelled and hurried upstairs.

"Why is she upset? Do you know something about it, Lily?" Mrs. Evans asked.

"No." Lily lied and felt bad about it. She grabbed a piece of paper and started writing.

_I didn't mean for someone to hurt your shoulder, Tuney. I am sorry. Love, Lily_

Lily shoved the note under Petunia's room door. For the first time, she didn't get an answer. Somehow shocked about this, she went to her own room as well. Severus hadn't been lying about being a wizard, she knew now. The exact moment and precision with which the branch had landed on Petunia's shoulder had seemed too supernatural to be a coincidence. Lily had started to believe in magic, and it didn't even seem all that strange anymore. In half a year, she and Severus would get an invitation for magical school, Petunia just didn't know about it. Lily could never have imagined this. When it was dinner time, she knocked at Petunia's room.

"I only come out if you promise to never talk to that boy again!" Petunia yelled.

Lily was disappointed. Severus had hurt Petunia, and that had been very mean of him indeed, but if it wasn't for Severus, she wouldn't even have known about Hogwarts at all.

"That is unfair, Tuney! He's the only wizard here!" she yelled back.

"Selfish like always, aren't you!" Petunia screamed. Tears stung in Lily's eyes. Petunia was right. It was selfish of her to think about Hogwarts. She ate dinner with her parents, sausage and beans that tasted like nothing, and nobody said anything. Her parents frowned in concern. Petunia had never acted like that before. Eventually, their mother brought her dinner at her room.

"Oh, what could be the matter with poor Petunia? Twelve is a tender age" Mrs. Evans asked herself every ten minutes, until Lily, feeling guilty, offered to talk with her again.

"Tuney, come out, please!" she pleaded.

"Go away!" Petunia screeched back.

The next day, Petunia finally came downstairs again, to their mother's delight, but she looked surly and sent Lily angry looks. Lily felt bad, but she reckoned that she deserved it.

"Lily has been talking to someone from Spinner's End" Petunia suddenly said. "That Snape boy. I told her he was mean to us, but she didn't listen…"

Mrs. Evans's eyes got big. "Is that true, Lily?" she inquired. Lily was forced to confirm it.

"Someone was mean to your sister – and you still kept talking to him! Why?" she went on, sounding angry.

"He was not mean at first" Lily protested. "I wanted to give him a chance"

"I know that Snape – once had a narrow escape from an explosion. Never a pleasant fellow to begin with, but afterwards…They say his son's mentally ill" her father warned.

"Promise me that you won't talk to him again!" her mother demanded.

"But he's not mentally ill – he's a wizard!" Lily said. Her parents looked at her as if she had said she wanted to live on the moon. Petunia rolled her eyes.

"A wizard?" Mr. Evans asked in a somewhat interested voice, but his wife cut him off.  
"When I was ten, I believed some pretty fantastical things too, Lily." she smiled sadly. "I thought I was going to become a head nurse…"

"You still can!" Petunia interjected.

"But I didn't really want to, after all." Mrs. Evans told her. To Lily, she went on: "I won't have it! Wizard on not, you should not talk to that boy again!"

Lily ran upstairs like Petunia, threw herself on her bed and buried her head in her pillow. She had never been one for dramatic actions, but this time she felt really angry. Why didn't they believe her? She knew that had to be difficult, but they had not even tried.  
A tear ran over her cheek and she started sobbing.

"Is this imagined school that Petunia told me about called Hogwarts?" Lily suddenly heard her mother's voice and looked up. Her mother was standing in her doorway. Petunia had told her mother about the magical school? That was strange. Lily nodded slowly.

"So what kind of school is it exactly?" her mother went on. That was even more surprising.

Lily listed all the subjects that were taught at Hogwarts monotonously and quickly. She told her mother about the letter that was supposed to arrive. "But I don't want to become a witch. I want to become a Muggle just like Petunia, just like you and everyone else." she finished. She did not look her mother in the eyes.

"A Muggle?" her mother asked. "What is that?"

"Someone who doesn't have magic." Lily said.

Suddenly, her mother got an earnest expression. "Lily, I have to tell you something." she said. Lily held her breath, and wondered what her mother was going to tell her. She hoped it wasn't bad.

"You have, indeed, always been a bit different from Petunia. Things happened around the house that didn't happen when you weren't there. That never happened to anyone else that I know of." Mrs. Evans began. "It started when you were very young. It was like you could control the household items and nature, making things appear or move when that was impossible. We even worried at one time if we should call a priest, but you always seemed so happy. However, when you were six and Petunia and you were playing tea with her stuffed animals, there suddenly was real tea in the cups. Petunia didn't know and it burned her hand. From that moment, we started punishing you when you accidentally did something unnatural, because I was sure that it had been an accident. I didn't think it would help, but it did. There never occurred any strange events again."

For a moment, Lily didn't say anything. She had not remembered the things her mother told her. She felt bad for having hurt Petunia, even though it had just been accidentally. Would Petunia still remember? She didn't hope so.

"Tuney knows it was an accident when she burned herself. She is not angry anymore. You were supposed to go to St. Adelaide's All Girls Boarding School just like her" Mother added, "but if you really get an invitation for Hogwarts in January, we can always see if we can arrange something." her mother's expression has become the one she also wore with birthday surprises.

Relief washed over Lily, and she felt more excited than she had in a long while. "Thank you, mummy" she said heartily.

"On one condition…" her mother hastily added. "That you won't talk to the Snape boy, or come near Spinner's End."

Lily wanted to protest that that wasn't fair, and that he knew everything about the magical world, but seeing her mother's expression and remembering that he had hurt Petunia, she nodded. Then, she went to Petunia's room.

"Why are you here?" Petunia asked. "I don't want to try crocheting the map of Cornwall again. Does mummy finally allow me to try out the vacuum cleaner?"

"No…" Lily began, swallowing. "It's about the tea accident…"

Petunia looked away. "I don't want to talk about that" she said firmly.

"But I wanted to apologize. From what I remember I just wanted there to be real tea in the cups, to make our tea party more realistic. Mummy told me you burned your hand…I should have told you…" Lily stammered. Petunia remained silent.

"Stop worrying about everything, Lily!" she eventually said.

In the evening when she tried to sleep, Lily heard Petunia's voice from downstairs, clearly audible: " It was just…there. Suddenly. The tea. There was no tea anywhere before we started playing, not a single cup. I was really scared. If that was an accident, it was also an accident when Rose chose Macy, that foreign girl in a wheelchair from my class whose crunchy pang sit have totally deep-fried her good manners, instead of me to go horse riding with."

_One year later _

The weather was as beautiful this summer as it has been before. Severus who was now eleven years old, had read 'Dark charms for the damned' countless times, but he still was eager every time he opened it. Jinxes, that made up the first part, weren't so bad really – more like pranks. Severus did not have a favorite, he liked them all, but if he had to choose one, it would be the tempest jinx or oppugno, he decided. For hours and hours he browsed aimlessly in his book. Still nothing; he began reading 'Magical constellations'. His mother shouted that he had to come down for dinner and they silently ate a disgusting-looking porridge. Then his father started drumming impatiently with his fork on the table.

"When, exactly, is that bloody letter supposed to arrive?

"Calm down. Everything will turn out fine. That letter will come one of these days, like I said!" his mother said in her toneless soothing voice.

When Severus went back to his room, there was a ticking against the window. He walked towards it. An owl with a lame wing struggled not to glide down the roof as it was demanding desperately for Severus to open the window with ticking against it with its beak. With trembling hands, he pulled. The window was stuck. He cursed and pulled again with all his might. Then, finally, the window started to open with a scraping sound, and the owl tumbled on the ground. It was holding a large, antique letter.

Severus Snape  
Attic, Spinner's End number 19  
Cokeworth

It had a red wax seal. When Severus tore it open, he blinked back something embarrassing and laughed aloud. Finally. His letter to Hogwarts had arrived. It felt like it was written just for him, but he knew that it was a standard letter. Dear Mr. Snape, it said, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He had pictured the ink handwriting a thousand times, but now it almost seemed unreal. He was concerned however. He needed to send a confirmation by owl, but how? His mother did not have her own owl.

"MUM!" he shouted, but his mum was irritated. "I told you your letter would arrive." she said.

"But the owl that brought it – I think it's dead" he said. Begrudgingly his mother followed him into his room.

"It just has a broken wing!" she said. "Just my luck… Of course when I want to go to bed, there needs to arrive a wounded owl! Thanks for informing me!" She sighed deeply, like she always did, went to the bathroom and searched in her apothecary shelf. Eventually, she held up some dusty old bottle.

"This is Skele-Gro. You have to give a small little sip and don't let the bottle fall" she said while handing it over.

At first, it seemed like nothing would happen, but then the owl slowly got up and the wing that had used to hung limply alongside its body was now lifted along with the other one. The owl shrieked, flapped its wings and flew towards the old bookshelf, where it remained sitting with unblinking eyes. Severus smiled from relief.  
He laid the letter down next to his pillow and read it over and over again. Pleased to inform you… List of necessary books and equipment…  
And then there was something else, still filling him with joy, incomprehensibly. The existence of Lily Evans. Lily's name was the reversion of everything and something wonderful. He had met Lily again on different occasions, but she had never talked to him as long as she had then by the river. The times he met her, she had ignored him or even ran away. It also hadn't helped that Petunia had always accompanied her, looking at him with what had looked like deadly fear in her eyes. Once, he had demanded an explanation from Lily for her strange behavior and she had whispered what he had already assumed; that she wasn't allowed to see him, and that she was sorry. But when they would both go to Hogwarts, everything would turn out all right.

The next day, his mum said: "Let's get some obligations for my reputation by the child care investigation…I mean, let's get you some belated presents for your birthday at Diagon Alley"

"We are going to Diagon Alley now?" Severus shouted exhilarated.

"Shh! Keep your voice down" his mother hissed. She took a bit of the powder stored in the tin jar above our fireplace and grabbed his hand. She lit up the molded wood, threw the powder in the fire and the flames flickered emerald green. Severus looked at it in fascination. It was magic. It was brilliant that Floo Powder was able to turn something so dangerous for Muggles into something harmless for witches and wizards. Severus admired the inventor of Floo Powder. His mum stepped into the flames and grabbed his hand harshly. "Leaky Cauldron!" she said loudly.

Standing in fire was a strange, but quite nice experience, Severus thought, though the smoke was somewhat irritating and induced coughing like it normally would. Other locations rushed past them so fast they were barely more than a flurry of colors and incomprehensible voices. The surroundings of their house at Spinner's End were replaced by a dark pub lit by oil lamps. There were a few people in odd clothing sitting at the bar, either Muggles or magical people.

"Hello! Going to Diagon Alley?" the barman asked. His mum nodded. When the barman saw Severus, he added: "Ah. To buy school supplies?"

"Yes, finally" she confirmed. "I survived five years of stories full of useless facts about that bloody school. "

Tom started laughing. Eileen stared back at him angrily and he quit. "We're going." she said. "It was not my idea to come back. Have a nice day."

They walked into the backyard. Eileen counted the bricks aloud and tapped the gateway one with her wand. The bricks started moving and an archway appeared. On the other side was a snow-covered street full of shops, such as Slug &amp; Jiggers Apothecary – far better ones than any you would ever find in Cokeworth, Severus thought. The few people making their way through the snow were wearing robes – real wizards and witches, and not one of them seemed to have any problem with the cold. Severus saw a child run past them wearing robes as well, with the face of a troll.

"Gudrun! Come here!" someone yelled.

"I saw real Peruvian Vipertooth last vacation in South America…" a wizard walking past them told another.

Severus sighed. He belonged here, amongst the other wizards.

"So." his mum said. "Let's go to Gringotts first and then to Ollivander's, getting your wand, hm?"

Severus looked at the large, white, marble building of Gringotts in the distance and nodded. It looked quite majestic. They started walking towards it. Broomstix had a new racing broom, the Nimbus 1001, Severus saw, and there was a really fascinating glowing globe in the shop window of Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment, although the shop looked a bit abandoned – probably because of the weather. He wondered what the way to Knockturn Alley was.

"Severus!" his mum shouted from a distance, and he could tell from her voice that she was impatient. "Hurry up!"

The crowd of people in purple, green, blue and black robes, with pointed hats, hats with feathers or comic faces or no hats at all and owls, toads or cats sitting on their shoulders retreated as Severus ran towards his mother, pushing some of the witches and other wizards away. As they walked the white stairs of Gringotts, she grabbed his arm. They went through the doors to the main hall, and there were real goblins standing before them, short and old-looking with beady eyes who bowed as they saw them. Then there was the big hall, made out of all white marble, with decorations and symbols engraved in the walls. And there were even more goblins sitting behind a long counter, inspecting and weighing coins, looking at diamonds through magnifying glasses, bookkeeping and talking to other wizards, witches and magical creatures. Goblins did not even need wands to perform their magic, Severus had read in 'A history of magic', and Gringotts was the greatest wizarding bank in Britain. But he did not have time to look around because his mum walked to one of the counters with a free goblin, dragging him along.

"Hello." she said. "I'd like to retrieve money from Vault 515"

The goblin did not answer, but just stared blankly in the distance. Eileen sighed loudly. "It seems like the manners of you goblins disappear little by little every time I come here. Back when I was young, we only had to step in the hallway and someone would hurry to help us! Oh, what did I expect, me and my bad luck. The great cards I've been dealt in life. Well, I'll give you some bad luck. Gornuk will hear about this development!"

The goblin from the counter next to theirs, whose clients were just walking away, leaned towards their direction and said: "Hobzilch is deaf, you need to communicate with sign language. My apologies for the trouble."

"On top of everything!" Eileen hissed. She drew the number of her vault in the air. The diamonds on Hobzilch's desk sparkled otherworldly. He answered very loudly in a language that was supposed to be English but had all the stresses wrong.

"So they expect me to be good at understanding gibberish too?" Eileen said. She handed over the large bronze key. Eventually, Hobzilch gave another goblin standing next to the underground passageway a message in sign language, and they walked towards him.

When they went through the doors it was as if they entered another world. The marble of the hall made place for what resembled the closest a cave, with large grey stones, lit by torchlight. The goblin pushed them in a cart that resembled one of the goods train wagons in Cokeworth, only made of wood and smaller. Suddenly, it started rolling over the track and then dived down, in a way similar as Severus had always imagined the rollercoasters he had never been in. It was quite nice and he was disappointed when, after what seemed like just seconds of stomach-turning falls and turns through the eerie depths under London, the cart eventually stopped before a large, dark grey, massive door.

"Vault number 551, Mrs. Prince. I will open it." the goblin said stiffly and climbed out of the cart.

"NO!" Eileen suddenly shouted. It echoed back in the empty space. She climbed out of the cart as well and pushed the goblin aside. The key fell on the stone floor. Eileen snatched it just before it could fall in the black depths beneath. Getting up with a pained expression, the goblin gave her a dark look.

"Bring me to Vault number 515 instead!" she demanded.

"As you please…" the goblin said in an annoyed voice and climbed back in the cart as well. Severus was excited and looked for the smallest glimpse of a dragon, but he did not see any. They went up again and finally arrived at vault number 515. In it were piles of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts, that shimmered in the darkness. His mother grabbed a few and threw them in a handbag decorated with gemstones. Then, they silently went back in the cart again. The way back wasn't very thrilling, Severus thought.

When they stood on the cobbled stones of Diagon Alley again, he asked: "What was the matter with that vault?"

"This key is made to open three vaults" his mother explained. "I wasn't allowed to open any of them, but I already opened one. That can never be undone, so I want to keep it that way."

Severus was curious why, but he did not dare to ask any more questions, for fear of ruining his otherwise great day. They went to Ollivander's, the most respected wandmaker in the United Kingdom, according to some sources. It was a very special moment. A bell rung as they entered. At first, there was no-one to be seen, only very high shelves with countless old-looking carton boxes stapled on top of each other. Then, an elderly wizard appeared from behind one of them.

"Well, well…What a delight! Eileen Prince! Ash, unicorn hair, rigid, nine inches – am I correct?"

"No" Eileen said sourly. "Acacia, unicorn hair, flexible, ten inches it is now. Completely useless."

"I remember selling that one to your aunt Finola – She passed away I reckon? Tragic, tragic…And I haven't seen your husband either, I believe! Is he still satisfied with his wand?" Ollivander wanted to know, walking towards Eileen until they were almost nose-to-nose.

"My husband does not have a wand!" she said menacingly.

Ollivander took a step back. "Oh…" he said, sounding disappointed. "Oh…" He did not ask any more questions about it. Then he noticed Severus. "So that's your son?" he asked.

Eileen nodded. "Yes, this is Severus Snape" she said. Severus wanted to disappear.

"So you want to be chosen by a wand?" Ollivander asked him.

Severus nodded. "Definitely!" he said. He thought he saw Ollivander smile. "Please sit down on that chair" Ollivander quickly removed a few boxes piled on a dusty chair, "and then you'll be measured".

Severus knew that this was an important part of being a chosen by a wand, but he still thought that it sounded rather ominous. He had always been short and rather skinny for his age and he had always hated it. The tape measure measured his arm. When it tried to measure his face and the space between his nostrils he cringed, and when it measured his neck in an uncomfortably tight way he harshly pulled it loose.

"Every wand is unique. I only use the most prestigious wand cores – phoenix feather, unicorn hair and dragon heartstring" Ollivander said, while examining his shelves. Then he grabbed a box, opened it and pulled out a wand. "Right then, Mr. Snape, just try this one – Cedar, dragon heartstring, flexible, ten inches. You only need to wave."

The wooden stick looked ordinary, it was difficult to imagine all the things it was capable of, but something about it, that Severus could not explain, was extraordinary. He waved with the cedar wand, but nothing happened.

"Hmm. No, that will not do. This one, then. Holly, phoenix feather, rigid, twelve inches."

There was a loud sound and ugly smoke. Hastily, Mr. Ollivander grabbed it back. "No, no. Try this one." he said.

After what seemed like a hour, Severus became just as concerned as the day before. When Mr. Ollivander handed him what felt like the thousandth wand, a dark and twisted looking one, Severus waved it thoughtlessly, no longer imagining he was jinxing someone. Great was his surprise when suddenly a faint silver sparkling mist spouted out of it.

"Finally! Blackthorn, dragon heartstring, rigid, ten and one quarter inches. Interesting, interesting." Mr. Ollivander said with narrowed eyes. "This could be a sign of a very tough challenge…Difficult times lay ahead…"

"We're not here for Divination" Eileen interjected. She handed Mr. Ollivander seven Galleons and without as much as a goodbye, she grabbed Severus's arm and pushed him out of the shop.

"Hold on when life gets tough, Mr. Snape!" Ollivander called after him. Severus had no idea what Mr. Ollivander meant by that, it had sounded like anxious nonsense, but he was glad that he had his wand at last. He wanted to try out spells immediately, but unfortunately that was not possible. He needed to wait until Hogwarts. They went to the robe shop, and a witch in colorful robes greeted them. She ordered Severus to stand on a stool next to a tall boy with red hair and browsed through the rack full of identical black robes, then eventually threw one over his head.

"Elspeth!" she called. "Help this boy, please!"

Elspeth, an attractive witch with blonde curls hurried towards Severus with a gentle smile.

"Git" the bloke next to Severus said with a raspy voice. When he turned his head, Severus was surprised, for one half of the boy's face was covered with a large, purplish red spot, that had a pattern of blood vessels bulging like leaves.

"Who are you?" Severus asked, but the boy did not answer. 'Git' had been an unusual insult, that he hadn't expected. As far as he knew, there was nothing about him that had ever induced any jealousy. Elspeth tailored the robes and eventually asked if he 'liked the way the robes felt'. Severus was glad that soon, he wouldn't have to wear frilly smocks anymore. They went to Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment for a telescope and set of crystal phials and bronze brass scales, and Severus admired the glowing globes of the space with stars and constellations until his mum eventually dragged him away. They bought a cauldron at Potage's cauldron shop and some missing books at Flourish and Blotts.  
At last, they went to a shop with all kinds of animals.

"Do you want a toad or something?" his mum asked.

Severus had never thought before about taking an animal with him to Hogwarts – it would be a nuisance to take care for, he supposed, but then again, a toad wouldn't need a lot of care, would it? It wasn't the most impressive animal, but it was an amphibian, and he liked cold-blooded animals.

"Yeah…I would like that I guess" he muttered.

His mum chose a lifeless-looking toad for him that she called Gluingel. "Be a bit more enthusiastic about it!" she snapped.

"Hello, er…Gluingel" Severus said awkwardly, even more aware of the fact that animals couldn't talk back. The toad looked briefly at him and then in another direction. Severus didn't know what to do with it, so his mum also bought a tank with rocks and plants that she put the toad in before she put it in her magically enlarged handbag. Then they went home, because Eileen was in a hurry.

Lily was eleven now, and this was the year that she would be going to Secondary School. She was up early because she couldn't sleep, but then she suddenly heard a ticking noise. Sleepily, she looked in the direction of the window. And she was immediately wide awake.  
Small yellow eyes stared back at her, in a big round white-grey head with a curved beak. The rest of the bird's feathers were a curious, beautiful mix of white, grey, black and brown. It was a bird she had never seen for real, that she had learned at school was normally seen at night. A creature that looked unusual.

_"It's real for us."_

Lily had completely forgotten until that moment. With trembling legs she walked towards the window and opened it. The owl flew over her head and a big, antique-white letter fell into her hands. It read in elegant calligraphy:

Lily Evans  
Church lane 17  
Cokeworth  
(House between the trees)

With shaking hands, Lily opened it. "HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY" it read. "Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards).  
Dear Mrs. Evans,  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July sincerely,  
Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress."

The list with required things included everything strange, such as robes and a pointed hat, a cauldron and a wand…Lily had no idea where she needed to buy such things. They were even allowed to bring their own animals. After having reread the letter about ten times, she went to sleep again, convincing herself that it had all just been a dream. After having sunken into a pleasant nothingness for a few hours, and a dream in which she owned a black cat and owned a large cottage in a mysterious village, she woke up from her mother's voice.

"Lily, wake up!"

Then, her mother's eyes grew wide as she noticed the letter from Hogwarts on her bedside table.

"What is that?" she asked. She looked from Lily to the owl which was sitting in the open window and back. "Where did that owl come from?"

Petunia, who had heard her and took a look as well, now stepped forward. "From Hogwarts, of course!" she said loudly. "You aren't going there anymore anyway, Lily, so you can throw it away."

I thought you believed Hogwarts did not exist, Lily thought.

"Not so quick." her mother interjected. She called the name of her husband, who soon arrived asking why she woke him up, but was stunned at seeing the letter.

"I think Lily should read it aloud first." Mr. Evans said. When she had done so, he read the list of school supplies and frowned. "Where on earth does one buy things like…" he squeezed his eyes, "a magic wand?"

"The Snape boy knows" Petunia said in an unpleasant voice. "He was the one who told Lily everything about Hogwarts!"

She said it in a way as if it was some kind of great reveal that would change everything, but the expression in their parents' eyes was just one of knowing exhaustion.

"Yes, I figured that out" Mrs. Evans said, "but in my opinion, that Snape boy does not have anything to do with the question of Lily will be attending Hogwarts or not".

Petunia looked very angry, for a reason that Lily did not understand.

"But how do I know where to buy my school supplies, then?" Lily asked hopefully. "If I just ask Severus…"

"No!" her mother said sternly. "You are not going to ask him anything!"

Lily examined the envelope some more. "'House between the trees'…" she repeated. "What do they mean, that shack that daddy made for us when we were little, back in the forest?"

"Let's see…" Her father read it as well. "That's a bit silly, Lily, why would they include that one? It's barely a shed. No, they cannot mean that."

"But maybe there is something in there!" Lily insisted. "A clue!"

"Well, let's take a look" her father said. Lily felt happy.

"There will be weeds there and earth! I won't go!" Petunia screeched.

"Oh come on Petunia, remember when you were little and liked going there? Be sociable and come with us" Mrs. Evans said.

"It's a stupid idea" Petunia complained as Lily put her coat over her nightgown, they put on shoes and walked through the garden towards the edge of the forest behind it. After a few minutes they saw the hut. There seemed to shine a light within it.

"Look! There's somebody there!" Lily whispered.

"Of course not. Now you are also seeing things that aren't…" Petunia began.

"Wanted to ring yer bell, but tha' would've been too conspicuous …" a low voice came out of the hut, sounding as if through a megaphone.  
Then someone opened the ramshackle door and a man came out of it, a man who was so big that Lily wondered how he could ever have fitted in the shack in the first place, who was twice as big as her father and several times as wide, and had bushy black hair that partially covered his face. He almost looked like…a giant. Severus had never told her about giants! Indoors, a fire was crackling.

Petunia screamed so loudly that Lily thought that the whole town must have heard her, then she looked as if she was about to faint.

"Caution, looks like he's part of the Hell's Angels" Mrs. Evans whispered.

"Er…Hello." Mr. Evans said, trying to make it sound as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Who are you? What do you want from us?" Mrs. Evans asked shrilly.

"Name's Rubeus Hagrid, an' I'm no part of any outlaw biker's gang" the man answered. "Am quite jealous of their…What do yeh Muggles call it? Motorcycles though." He looked around him. "I'm here for Lily. Lily Evans. She lives here an' she just received her Hogwarts letter, am I righ'?"

"Yes." Mrs. Evans said slowly. "We – er – were just contemplating were to buy the supplies listed in the letter."

"Well, then I'm the person you need" Hagrid stated. "I'm the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts". There was a silence. "Hogwarts is the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the area of England, Scotland and Wales." he went on when no-one reacted. "It must've been quite a shock to discover yeh're a witch." He added, looking at Lily.

"Yes, it was" she answered, glad that he understood her.

"But I think yeh always knew, righ'? I mean, there must've been things that you could do that others couldn', tha' were nice?" Hagrid asked.

"It feels like I can fly," Lily said, "and I can do other things too, like making the petals of a flower move."

"Yeh can control yer magic?" Hagrid asked, sounding astonished.

"I don't know" Lily answered, feeling herself getting shy. Rubeus noticed and pat her on the shoulder, which felt like someone had put on her a backpack full of stones. "Yeh will find out. At Hogwarts yeh will learn proper spells" he reassured her.

"But where can we buy the school supplies?" her father asked. "Could you give us an address?"

"Oh, yes, of course, tha' was why I came here in the firs' place." Hagrid said. "Yeh of course don' know about Diagon Alley".

"What is Diagon Alley?" Father asked.

"It's one of the oldest wizarding shopping centres, and it's located in London." Hagrid explained. "On here I've written the way to reach it…"

He handed Mr. Evans a piece of what looked like parchment that had been folded way too many times and became soft so that the ink words on it were barely readable.

"Go…to…the Leak… Cauldron." Mr. Evans read. " May I ask another question?"

"Sure, ask away" Hagrid said.

"Where is the Leak Cauldron?"

"The Leaky Cauldron is in Charing Cross Road." Hagrid answered. "Next to Quinto Bookshop"

"Touch…The… third…brick from bottom…and the…second…brick…from left." Mr. Evans continued. "Which bricks?"

"Near the trash can, but the barman, Tom will explain everything ter yeh if y'ask him!" Hagrid finished. "Any more questions?"

"Where is Hogwarts?" Mr. Evans asked.

Hagrid frowned a little. "But tha's meant to be a secret, actually.." he said. "Yeh're Muggles. I could tell it to yeh two, I suppose. Hogwarts is built in Scotland, in the area of Moray, near the Convall hills and Mortlach."

"Scotland. That's quite – quite far away!" Mrs. Evans said loudly.

"But the students go there straight by train an' they can choose to go back in the holidays" Hagrid said with a hint of proudness in his voice, "and there's no school where yer daughter gets better education than at Hogwarts, I assure yeh!"

"We have time to decide until July 31th." Mr. Evans reminded his wife.

"Then yer confirmation letter needs ter have arrived." Hagrid added, "and owl post can be a bit slow at times, so it would be better if yeh decide right now and I can tell it to Albus Dumbledore…But if tha's not possible…"

"What do you want, Lily? Do you want to attend Hogwarts?" her father asked her. "Or do you want to go to your sister's school instead?"

Lily looked in the direction of Petunia, who did not look back. Going to another school than Petunia…She had done everything together with Petunia at that moment. It would be difficult. But then again, they would still see each other in the holidays...

_"Spells and charms, every kind…"_

She looked at Hagrid, who looked back in what seemed like (though she couldn't see it very clearly because of his heavy eyebrows and beard) eager anticipation.

"Hogwarts." she admitted, feeling herself smile. "Someone I know goes there, too".

"NO! YOU CAN'T MEAN THAT!" Petunia cried out.

"Do yeh know a witch?" Hagrid asked Lily, interested.

"No, a wizard" she corrected. "Named Severus. He lives here, too".

"Severus Snape?" Hagrid repeated. "That bloke whose mom married a Muggle?"

Lily nodded and looked at Petunia, who was looking like she had just heard she was terribly ill. "Sorry, Tuney!" she said sadly, trying to ignore Petunia's distress, but that was difficult. Had she really made the right decision?

"I mean…" she began, but her father cut her off. "How can we pay for tuition?" he asked Hagrid.

Lily wanted to try again, but Hagrid answered: "Oh, yes, forgot about tha'…Tuition's already paid. By our Ministry of Magic. School supplies are about twenty Galleons, maximum…But yeh can exchange Muggle money for Galleons at Gringotts."

"Wait! I want to say…" Lily tried to interject but again her father cut her off. "Well, thanks a lot for explaining the procedure to us, Mr. Hagrid." he said.

"T'was a pleasure! I'm looking forward to seein' Lily in September!" Hagrid said, beaming. It did not seem appropriate to change her opinion anymore, Lily thought, the decision was made. Secretly, she was really glad for it. She hoped, however, that Petunia wasn't too disappointed…She did not dare to look at her sister, feeling guilty.

"I hope you won't consider me rude for asking, Mr. Hagrid…" Mrs. Evans begun, her voice still shaking somewhat, "but may I ask how did you get so tall? Been fed Miracle-Gro?"

"No, I am part giant!" Hagrid confirmed. "Me father was a wizard – but me mom was a giantess. She left though, and me father died…'Bout twenty years ago…" He suddenly turned around. Lily saw that he was wiping his eyes with a big handkerchief, and she felt sorry for him.

"He… was…such…a…great…father." Hagrid muttered to himself.

"Why was he great?" Lily asked.

Hagrid looked up, startled, and smiled when he saw her despite his tear-stained face. "We would go everywhere…" he said. "We would make the nicest trips…" He coughed.

"Do you want some tea?" Mrs. Evans asked.

"No, thanks." Hagrid said. "Normally I would but I need ter get goin'. But thanks for asking. Yeh're nice people." He walks towards the garden. "Yeh have a very nice garden." he added, looking around him, from the snow-covered moor grass to the leafless cherry trees and the winter plants that had survived. "Must be very beautiful in summer".

"Thank you" Mr. and Mrs. Evans said in unison. You couldn't make them happier than with praising their garden.

"Is he leaving?" Petunia asked Lily shrilly, pointing at Hagrid. "Didn't you tell him you'd go to a…a…Muggle school, Lily? Now it may be too late!"

Lily stayed quiet, not daring to answer, but Hagrid, standing by the garden gate, called bluntly: "Yer sister can think for herself. With her magical gift, she's going to Hogwarts"

Lily was relieved.

"But mummy, Lily has already been signed up for St. Adelaide's!" Petunia protested to their mother.

"That doesn't matter, dear. We can always write another letter that it was a mistake." Mrs. Evans said in a reassuring voice. Lily felt sorry for her sister, because she knew that Petunia wouldn't be easily reassured.

It was a nice day in spring, and the snow had disappeared from the streets of Cokeworth. Mr. and Mrs. Evans, Lily and Petunia headed to London in very early. They had been to London several times, but Lily could not remember it very well anymore, though she remembered the Tower Bridge and Big Ben. After having parked the car in a garage, they walked past shops with interesting Chinese lampions and pottery with Chinese signs until they arrived in a busy road with red and white, elegant looking buildings that contained book shops, a store with men's wear, a perfume store and more bookstores.  
They stopped at a second-hand antique bookstore that was called Quinto Bookshop. Next to it was a pub with a sign of a cauldron next to it. No-one else looked at it.

"There it is!" Lily said happily.

"Where? I don't see anything." her mother said.

Lily pointed at it. "Look, there. See?" she said. "In that grey building".

"Oh!" her mother suddenly said. "Yes, you are right! How amusing!"

They went inside and, after a long hesitation, Petunia followed them. There was a bald and odd-looking wizard standing behind a bar. He had almost no teeth left and his mouth was wrinkled. The rest of the pub was dark and empty; apparently this was not the right visiting hour.

"What can I get for you and at which percentage? Ho hum, run-off-the-mill or plastered?" the barman asked.

"We are... looking for Diagon Alley" Lily said uncertainly.

"Rubeus Hagrid told us that you would er…explain something. About the… gateway to Diagon Alley" her father added uncertainly.

"Ah! A new Hogwarts student!" Tom said. "Muggle-born, I assume?" he asked Lily. She nodded.

Tom led the way towards the back door of the pub that led to a small courtyard that looked badly maintained and was closed off from the rest of the world by a brick wall. Tom walked straight towards the wall and then touched a certain brick. Immediately the bricks shoved aside and changed the solid wall into a huge archway.

"There you go. Don't forget to come back to buy some firewhiskey!" Tom said.

"Thanks for your help" Lily said and she, her parents and at last, Petunia stepped into a busy street.

It was a street like no other. It looked ancient and modern at the same time, stuffed with all sorts of shops, and just from looking at them without even reading the signs or checking out the windows you saw that they couldn't possibly be Muggle shops, because they were…different. The most striking thing about the buildings was that construction-wise, they seemed impossible, about to collapse, and yet they didn't. Almost all the people at Diagon Alley wore long, flowing pieces of cloth, that reminded Lily the most of monk attire or something that used to be fashion in ancient Greece or Rome, but with a modern twist. Lily heard the hooting of owls and saw people hold all kinds of strange objects. She felt excited, and as she glanced at her parents, she saw that they were as excited as she was.

"This place…This place is wonderful!" her mother said.

"Brilliant" her father said, laughing from joyful disbelief. "Brilliant"

Even Petunia did not even make a single disapproving remark.

"Let's go get our wizarding money." Mr. Evans said. Lily nodded, but she still kept looking around and walked as slowly as possible towards the direction her parents were heading. Finally, a beautiful, formal looking white building rose up against the sky.

"Look at these creatures!" Mrs. Evans whispered. Lily followed her gaze, lingering on a strange short creature that might have looked human if it wasn't for his pointed ears, long fingers and tiny beady eyes. The creatures seemed to take their duty of protecting Gringotts very seriously, although they nodded in an almost friendly manner when they passed them. Inside was a second, shiny door, that looked like it was made from the purest silver. It carried an inscription:

_Enter, stranger, but take heed_  
_ Of what awaits the sin of greed,_  
_ For those who take, but do not earn,_  
_ Must pay most dearly in their turn._  
_ So if you seek beneath our floors_  
_ A treasure that was never yours,_  
_ Thief, you have been warned, beware_  
_ Of finding more than treasure there_

Lily felt a tingle of uneasiness as well as enchantment after reading the poem. It was almost as if mere words carried a whole different form of magic themselves. She wanted to read it over, but her father already opened the silver door. Everything was marble, and there was a very long counter where lots and lots of goblins were sitting behind, doing the most curious things such as examining gold through a magnifying glass. One threw a hand of silver coins against the wall, making all the others look up.

"Rubbish. Fake silver!" he exclaimed furiously.

They walked towards the big counter. "I would.. I would like to exchange my Mu… " Mr. Evans begun with hesitation.

"Muggle money" Lily helped him.

"Very well." One of the creatures said. He pointed with one of his long fingers towards a bronze door with the inscription Muggle Money Exchange Office. "You can do so there."

"Thanks!" Lily said.

"At your service." the creature said.

They needed to wait in a little line, and a red-haired young man said "Pences! Real pences!" When it was their turn, the creature from the Muggle Money Exchange Office asked them how many Galleons, Sickles and Knuts they wanted to buy. Mr. Evans took the list with required school supplies out of his pocket and smoothed it.

"Er…It doesn't say how much everything costs" he said.

"A wand is seven Galleons, robes are five galleons and two sickles, books are between five sickles and twenty Knuts, and pets are usually one Galleon" a woman with light blonde hair next to a small blonde haired girl, two sandy-haired boys and a sandy-haired man helped him.

"Thanks, …what's your name?" Mr. Evans asked.

"McKinnon" the woman said. "Erin McKinnon. You're welcome"

"Before we can buy our supplies, we have to get some sort of trolley to put everything in" Mrs. Evans said when they were back outside. Lily agreed. Fortunately, they found a stall selling them.

"Magically enlarged trolleys...Very handy" the wizard behind the stall, who was clad in an orange robe with blue daisies on it and wore Muggle sunglasses, said.

"Which size do you want? Extended by how much inches? Standard, ten inches with a volume of a hundred inches costs five Knuts" he said. They bought one.

They walked towards a small shop called Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands sinds 382 B.C, and as they opened the door a bell rang. Lily was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of neatly piled up boxes all around, reaching the ceiling. Dust slowly whirled down from the seemingly endless cabinets, visible in the weak ray of sunlight shining through one very small little window. It set the shop in a very odd, almost ethereal light.

"This shop is creepy" Petunia whispered.

A pale old man with white bushy hair came down from narrow winding stairs. The man had a penetrating gaze, with eyes that reminded Lily of her grandparents. His eyes were either light from age or because they had always been like this, but they were so light his irises resembled the faint light of the moon. The old man inspected them very intensely, until he said in a soft voice: "Ah, a Muggle-born witch coming to buy her first wand. Lily Evans. And you must be her parents and sister. Good morning everyone. My name is Garrick Ollivander."

"Good morning" Lily said in unison with her parents. This time they didn't ask anything, probably because they assumed Ollivander already knew everything.

"Good, good..." Ollivander cleaned up his counter by shoving some pieces of parchment on the ground. "My wands are excellent. I use the most powerful phoenix feathers, unicorn hairs and dragon heartstrings and use wood from only the best of trees. However, before you try my wands, I have to explain something first. The witch or wizard does not choose the wand. No, the wand chooses the witch or wizard. That's very important, you see. If the match between a wand and its owner is not there, you can wave as much as you like, but there won't be happening anything – no magic, at least"

Petunia snorted.

"But how do you know which wand will choose me?" Lily wanted to know.

"Ah. That's a good question. First I will take your measurements" Ollivander grabbed a tape measure, "and then I'll just give you a few wands to try that I have the feeling will match your temperament. Which arm is your wand arm?".

"Uhm…left, I guess" Lily said, because she was left-handed. She giggled when the tape measure unrolled and started measuring her arm and other body parts out of its own. Ollivander walked quickly along the cabinets in the room, sometimes pausing to grab a box or make it fly towards him by a snap of his fingers. Then he disappeared into the darkness of the back of his store, and after a few minutes he came back with his arms full of boxes. He opened one and thrust a small, long piece of wood in Lily's hand.

"Willow and phoenix feather, ten and a half inches, very swishy. Just try it" Ollivander said.

And Lily waved in the air with the wand, she suddenly felt a strange tingling in her whole body and was overwhelmed by a feeling that she could not describe. It was as peaceful as the feeling she had while floating in the sky, or taking a walk in the forest, and as powerful as nothing she had ever experienced before. Immediately a stream of firework-like sparks came out of the wand. Lily stared at it in amazement. Glancing at Petunia, she saw that even she was gaping in awe.

"Great! At my first try!" Ollivander said in a very pleased voice. "Yes, very supple, very good for charms... You have an excellent wand here, miss Evans! The vision I had…The vision I had was right. I saw you waving a twig of willow".

Lily beamed when Ollivander put her wand back in the box and put it on the table. 'That's seven Galleons" he said, and Lily's father handed them to him. In the meantime, Petunia had opened the box and grabbed the wand. She waved with it as well, but nothing happened. When Ollivander saw it, he looked at her sternly and turning a little pink, she quickly put it back. They left the shop. Lily wanted to admire her wand all day, but they had more things to do, so she put it in her trolley. When she looked at it, she was astonished to see that indeed, the space was lots and lots bigger than you expected.

"Tuney! Look!" she said. Petunia looked in the trolley and gasped. "I wish there were wardrobes like this" she said.

"What do we do next?" Mrs. Evans asked. They saw a shop called Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and went there to fit robes. The shop was stuffed with racks and racks of black robes. There was one special cabinet where robes in all sorts of colors were hanging, and even some very sparkly ones. Because Petunia liked fashion, Lily asked if she wanted to come along, but Petunia insisted that robes were unflattering curtains with sleeves made wearable by lazy people.

"Hello, are you looking for your Hogwarts uniform?" a witch said in a friendly voice. She was wearing a very unusual robe; it was light green with embroidered silver leaves on it.

"Yes, thank you!" Lily said.

"Come with me" the witch said and led her to two empty stools. "I happen to have no customers, so you're lucky." She instructed Lily to stand on the stool while she got one of the black robes from the shop and put it over her head. After she had tucked it in at the waist "it should not fit like a gunny sack, dear" and had taken in the sleeves and hem "you are quite petite" she was done.

They went into the book shop, Flourish and Blotts, which also had shelves reaching the ceiling, full of all kind of books. They asked the wizard salesman if he knew where they could find the required books and they floated towards Lily, who hastily caught them as they formed a pile. She quickly turned her back on a bookshelf with book titles such as Nasty Habits of Muggles and How To Cope With Them and Muggle Studies: Are They Really Neccessary? Lily could have spent a whole day inside, but they had more things to do, so they paid for the schoolbooks and left.

The next shop they entered was Scribbulus Writing Implements. Lily looked in awe at all the beautiful calligraphy on the framed sample texts on the wall. She tried to read one, but all it said was "Nil gerrae nuga nuga nil nil nil hariolor".

"That's one of me certificates of quality" the wizard behind the counter said, but then he squinted and made sounds as if his tongue was moving spastically in his mouth. Lily hastily put the money for a beautiful quill with inkpot on the table and left. They went into Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment, which turned out to be a small and very dark, mysterious shop with showcases full of beautiful glass objects shining in the light of candles. Some even glowed by themselves. The owner, who had to be Wiseacre, was standing behind his dark, wooden counter and examined an ancient looking watch through a magnifying glass. He did not look up as they approached him.

"Do you sell telescopes, brass scales and glass vials here?" Mr. Evans asked.

"But of course. Lots of sorts" said Wiseacre. He made a gesture towards all the showcases and was immersed in looking at the watch again. They both took the cheapest of the telescopes, a beautiful glass vial set that Lily admired, and a set of fine brass scales. They went to Potage's Cauldron shop, that said "Cauldrons - All Sizes, Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring, Collapsible". The shop indeed lived up to its promise. It was chockfull of all kinds of cauldrons, some stacked on top of each other. Lily really wanted to get a collapsible cauldron because it seemed handy, but they needed to get a pewter one in size 2 instead. Fortunately, it wasn't too big to carry, although they looked rather ridiculous and Potage had to get his money (Six galleons and fifteen Sickles) himself. Fortunately, it fit in the enlarged trolley.

"We are almost done. Now, only the pets are left" Mrs. Evans said. They came across a shop called Magical Menagerie. It looked like a chaos inside, with everywhere birds singing, dogs barking and cats meowing and even strange fluffy creatures that Lily had never seen before. A black cat was limping past them. It had only one eye and looked like something out of a bad horror movie.

"That's Midnight" the owner called from out of the shop. "I've got her for seven years now, but nobody wants her".

Lily wanted Midnight for a pet. But her mother said that she needed to get an owl with the argument "A cat can't send letters home".

"But what if that poor thing dies there?" Lily asked depressively.

"If that cat is still there after three years, we will buy it" her mother promised and that reassured her somewhat. They went to Eelops Owl Imperium instead and bought a pretty snow owl that Lily called Elisedd. Mrs. Evans bought icecream that they ate like in one of their vacations. Then they went home. Satisfied, Lily sat in the car, watching the busy city make place for country land and the industrial surroundings of her hometown. She could not wait for more fantastic things to happen.

* * *

_The dialogue of Severus and Lily from "…and the Ministry can punish you if you do magic outside school, you'll get letters." till "You did! You hurt her!" is copied from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, page 666-668. The content of the Hogwarts letter and the Gringotts poem is copied from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone._


	3. The Sorting

It took a long time before Lily met Severus again. The second day that she spent alone in her room, browsing the fantastical books from her list, her attention again drifting to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Petunia had told her about the Silvers and Blues from St. Adelaides All Girls Boarding School, that Rose's mother had told Petunia about. Petunia had told unsettling stories about the experiences of Rose's mother – how she had not wanted to attend sport's day and a fellow Blue housemate had spread evil rumors about her, and that they had pulled out each other's hair in an argument about the shower. Lily wondered if Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were similar to Silver and Blue, but unfortunately, it had been months ago when she had last talked to the only person able to tell her, only to deliver the quick explanation for why she had been ignoring him. But right now, her parents were at work and Mrs. Peters was looking after her and Petunia. Lily shut 'Fantastic beasts and where to find them', gave Elisedd an owl treat because Petunia had complained about the hooting, and walked downstairs. Mrs. Peters was immersed in a quiz on television, so Lily sneaked outside and headed into the direction of the river again. She went into the dark, cobblestoned alleyway and walked past the lopsided houses until there were no more streets. In front of her rose the old textile mill like a prison and she saw that the many paneled windows were blinded by a layer of dirt. The last street, looking more abandoned than all the others, had a rusty sign on it that said 'Spinner's End'.

"Severus!" Lily shouted, but there was no reaction. After she had called his name a few more times, Lily gave up. She hurried back through the dark alley towards the river. Then, suddenly, she heard the echo from running footsteps other than hers and someone grabbed her arm.

"I'm here, now what?" she heard an unfamiliarly familiar voice say in her ear.

"I need to know something about Hogwarts" Lily said, turning and looking in the face of the odd-looking wizard boy she hadn't seen for months. "By the way, I have all that I need to become a witch now. My daddy bought me magical books, a cauldron…"

"You've been to Diagon Alley?" Severus cut her off impatiently. Lily nodded.

"I've been there the day after my birthday. Could've shown you my wand at last" Severus continued, "but my mum hid it – under stuff. Found it the previous time, and I was chased by her until I handed it over. She doesn't want me to do things with it yet"

"Your mum's right! The Ministry does not even allow you to perform magic!" Lily said.

"I don't mean spells" Severus muttered. "Just wanted to practice my swish and flick movements without the incantations, that's all…"

"Happy birthday, by the way" Lily said.

Severus smiled. "Happy birthday too!" They ran away from Spinner's End through Baker Street, Greenfield Avenue and Church Street. Lily halted by her front door and rang the bell. The door was opened by Petunia.

"What is this doing here, Lily?" she screeched, pointing at Severus.

"I want to show Severus my Hogwarts letter!" Lily protested.

"You are the most gullible person in the world" Petunia said, and the tone of her voice reminded Lily of the times Petunia had picked up the phone talking to their mother's friends about divorces and motherhood until they had asked her about her favorite remedy against wrinkles. "No normal person would let in that boy. That would be like begging him to steal something. I am going to tell this to mummy and daddy when they come home!"

"Then I am going to tell Mrs. Peters that you stole perfume from her once" Lily threatened, "because you wanted belong to Rose and her friend group." Petunia had never known that she had seen that.

Petunia paled. "I didn't!" she protested. "I didn't steal anything!"

"Then how did that bottle appear in your room?" Lily demanded.

"That…That…I…" Petunia stammered, but she let Lily and Severus pass her with an angry glare at Severus's frilly smock. Severus followed Lily upstairs through the corridor. They walked past Petunia's room, and the door was open.

"She has your letter, too!" Severus said.

"Don't be silly-" Lily said following his gaze, but she did not finish her sentence, because there was indeed a large, antique white envelope lying on Petunia's desk. Before Lily could have said anything, Severus had already walked into the room with flower curtains and walls of dusty pink. Instead of returning, he just kept standing there.

"I was mistaken. It's not yours" he said and swallowed. "I don't understand how a Muggle could have contacted Hogwarts".

Lily did not understand what Severus meant and took a look herself. When she saw the name on the letter, her heart leapt. Petunia's name was written on another letter, in the same calligraphy as her own. This was something she hadn't dare to hope for anymore.

"Hurry up, open it" she said. Severus opened the letter and drew out the parchment.

"I wonder why Petunia got her letter one year later" Lily mused, concerned. "Maybe they made a mistake with her year of birth…"

"They didn't make a mistake." Severus said in a determined voice, as his eyes were darting over the letter. "She got rejected". Adding that, his voice broke in the same way as it had done when he had been telling Lily about Hogwarts.

"No!" Lily said, suddenly getting a heavy feeling in her chest. "Let me read it!" She snatched the letter from Severus.

_Dear Ms. Evans, _it read.

_It was very enterprising of you to take the initiative to write to Hogwarts all by yourself. You asked me whether someone could attend education at Hogwarts when they have not received an invitation. Unfortunately, the answer to that question is no. Because of the fact that you are born as a Muggle (an un-magical person), you would not be able to find Hogwarts. Even if you did travel to the place of Hogwarts independently, the only thing that you would see is a ruin. This is because of the spell cast upon it by our Ministry of Magic. It would have been quite a disappointment for you that your sister will be going to a separate, unknown school. Therefore I want to reassure you that you and your sister can write and there is an opportunity for her to go home every holiday. I know that this does not take away your other disappointment, of not being able to participate in the magical world as a Muggle. On that I would like to comment that there are other kinds of magic than the sort you are now thinking of such as compassion, love and joy, that you are no doubt familiar with in your everyday life already. If you have trouble choosing a career path, I would like to add that besides having a lovely handwriting, your grammar and spelling are perfect. I am sure that in the future, you will have no trouble at all finding an administrative function in a Muggle company. With your curious and instigating nature, you will be a blessing for every organization. I wish you lots of luck with the rest of your life._

Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts headmaster

Lily saw her vision of her and Petunia practicing spells together shatter. Twice she had been disappointed this way now, first while discovering Petunia was a Muggle and now after having been so stupid as to believe that the letter meant Petunia was accepted at Hogwarts too…

"What's the matter?" Severus asked.

"I feel sad because Petunia is rejected!" Lily said loudly, swallowing back her tears.

"I don't understand how she could have been…There must be wizards who are working for the Muggle postal service" Severus said.

"Let's go to my room" Lily said, because the letter could have been delivered by flying elephants as far as she was concerned. She put the letter back carefully on the exact place where it had been before and took Severus to her room, that was crammed with her Hogwarts things. Severus admired her brass scales, set of phials, cauldron, tried to stroke Elisedd and pulled back his hand when she pecked his finger. Lily felt upset seeing his contorted face.

"That was my fault! I should have warned you – I thought she liked everyone" she said. "The shopkeeper said she was a very social owl…"

"It was nothing!" Severus said.

"Severus, what are Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff? I heard some wizards talking about them at Diagon Alley." Lily finally asked. "One of them said he was in Hufflepuff, and the other reacted kind of…badly. He said he was in Ravenclaw. What does that mean?"

"Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are two of the four Hogwarts houses" Severus said, gesticulating something vague. "The other two are Slytherin and Gryffindor."

"Are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffindor the same as Silver and Blue?" Lily wanted to know.

Severus frowned. "Silver and Blue? What are that?"

"They are houses from the school my sister goes to" Lily explained. "When you arrive there, you are divided into Silver or Blue by the teacher, and you have to eat and sleep together with the other girls from your group for all seven years".

"Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor are like that" Severus acknowledged, "but you are not just assigned a house by chance. You are Sorted by the Sorting Hat. That is a hat which is enchanted so that it is able to see which house fits you best."

"Is that difficult, being Sorted?" Lily wanted to know. She had no idea how to imagine an enchanted hat.

"No, not when you have a lot of magic, like you" Severus reassured her. Lily felt relieved.

"And on which platform does the train to Hogwarts stop?" she suddenly remembered another question she had forgotten the ask.

"Platform 9 ¾" Severus said seriously. "At King's Cross Station".

"But…King's Cross Station does not have a platform 9 3/4!" Lily said.

"Oh, it does" Severus said with the knowing smile that meant that she had overlooked something magical, "You have to run into the division between platforms nine and ten".

"Run into?" Lily gasped.

"Yeah, it's easy, really, you just want to make sure that you aren't too afraid" Severus said. "Otherwise…well, I've seen people break their arm!" He laughed loudly and Elisedd fluttered. Lily reckoned she must have looked scared, because Severus soothed: "I was just joking. No-one ever broke any limbs this way that I know of. Well, it could happen in theory I guess, but…all I'm saying is you shouldn't be afraid".

When the evening set in and her parents would come home soon for dinner, Lily told Severus that he needed to go.

"But we'll see each other at Platform 9 ¾!" she said, already getting excited. He nodded.

It was a beautiful day that September started. Even Spinner's End somewhat improved from the golden light that shone upon it. Eileen sought for an hour under a pile of dirty old rags under her bed, complaining that she had put such a good hiding charm on Severus's wand that even she couldn't find it anymore, until she finally did. Tobias was humming and drinking tea in the morning, something very extraordinarily.  
It almost seemed like he was in a good mood. Severus had never imagined that his father was capable of such a thing.

"So you are really going to that…school for seven years?" he asked repeatedly during breakfast (the same porridge as always that Severus thought, tasted less disgusting than usual), as if he was hardly able to believe it.

"Yes, he is" Eileen answered with a slavish smile at her husband. "Go get your things!" she ordered Severus. He went upstairs to pack his trolley with his wand, books, equipment and Gluingel. He was finally going to Hogwarts, and he hoped that he would be sorted in Slytherin… Slytherin was the house that was not against Dark magic, whose founder saw the world for what it really was, the house where you went when you had a lot of magic and the potential to achieve great things. Severus heard his parents talking louder for the last time. Something was shattered, probably a glass that his dad had thrown against the wall.

"It will not go back to being the same as eleven years ago! The only reason I stayed with you was because I couldn't find someone better!" his dad shouted.

His mother started to cry. "Well, so do I!" she screamed.

Severus hardly dared to believe that this was the last time that he was forced to hear them argue. When he walked in the sitting room, his mother's expression was sourer than ever.

"Well…goodbye for now" Severus muttered to his dad. His father examined him and Severus prepared himself for some scathing remark.

"Goodbye" his dad replied. Severus waited for something more, but it didn't come. Stunned, he looked at his dad some more, which made his dad narrow his eyes. Hastily, Severus averted his gaze and turned around. Silently, his mother opened the door and they took a shortcut past the mill to the train station.

"Do you have everything?" Eileen snapped. "I'm not going back!"

She bought two tickets from the Muggle ticket vendor. As they boarded the Muggle train, taking place on two empty seats with another two empty seats in front of them with a left Muggle paper and a packet of cookies and the train left the station, Severus watched in satisfaction how the station full of goods trains and the dreary buildings of his hometown, overshadowed by the mill, made place for countryside and cities. After a long ride they finally entered a large steel dome supported by stone pillars. It was very busy on the platforms. A lot of Muggles swarmed past. Eileen and Severus made their way through the crowd with difficulty until they arrived at the barrier between platforms nine and ten.

"You go first" she said to Severus and pushed him. He swallowed. What if there was no enchantment on the wall? What if he had made a mistake and it was another? A Muggle bumped into him and he heard the jeering of some boys wearing glitter suits. Quickly, Severus started running with the trolley. When he was close to the brick wall, he closed his eyes. But there came nothing. No collision, no pain. When he opened his eyes again, he finally saw the train that he had been trying to imagine for years. It looked like a GWR 4900 class 5MT steam locomotive. Severus sighed. Everything was fine. The Hogwarts Express was not leaving yet, they still had ten minutes left. His mother appeared next to him.

"It hasn't changed at all" she said.

Severus looked around in the mismatched crowd of people in Muggle clothes and robes around him. Then he suddenly saw who were standing at a close distance and his heart leapt. Lily and Petunia were arguing, and he recognized the brown-haired woman standing a bit behind them with a red-haired man. Their parents. Severus felt his heart beat faster as he was trying to hear what Petunia was saying.

"You expect me to be happy for you" Petunia complained in her self-righteous voice, "while mummy and daddy asked you if you wanted to go to Hogwarts. You had a choice, Lily! You knew I wouldn't like it, and still you chose for that school…"

"I'm sorry, Tuney, I'm sorry!" Lily said. "Listen…" She grabbed her sister's hand. Petunia wanted to pull herself loose, but she did not succeed. "Maybe once I'm there – no, listen, Tuney! Maybe once I'm there I'll be able to convince professor Dumbledore to change his mind!"

Severus was annoyed. He reassured himself with the fact that this was impossible. There would be no way that professor Dumbledore was going to make an exception for one Muggle, and even if he did, Petunia would soon realize that she couldn't perform a single spell and leave. And fortunately, he didn't need to have worried, because Petunia said with emphasis: "I – don't – want – to – go!", having finally managed to pull herself free. "You think I want to go to some stupid castle and learn to be a – a…" She was looking for a word with the familiar look in her eyes that Severus was glad to see was not reserved only for him anymore. "You think I want to be a-a freak?"

Lily's eyes had become blurry. "I'm not a freak. That's a horrible thing to say" she said in a flat voice that Severus did not recognize.

This made Petunia look happy. "That's where you are going. A special school for freaks. You and that Snape boy – weirdos, that's what you two are. It's good you are being separated from normal people. It's for our safety".

Severus hoped that this wouldn't make Lily regret her decision to go to Hogwarts. But she glanced around to their parents, and when she realized that they hadn't heard Petunia, she turned back to her sister and said in a low voice that Severus had never expected she would use addressing Petunia: "You didn't think it was such a freak's school when you wrote to the headmaster and begged him to take you".

Petunia protested that she hadn't, with cheeks that had splotched scarlet, but Lily told her about the reply that they had read. This made Petunia splutter something about 'her private'. Now, Lily looked at Severus for a second with her lime green eyes. Even here, between all the other witches and wizards, she looked more magical than the rest.

"That boy found it!" Petunia concluded with outrage. "You and that boy have been sneaking in my room!"

Lily protested that they hadn't been sneaking and explained the situation, but like usual, Petunia did not want to listen and complained about wizards 'poking their noses in everything'. "Freak!" she spat at Lily, and the tone that she used was the same as the one she had used when she had insulted Severus by the river. Severus felt relieved that Petunia was not able to fool Lily about her true nature anymore. He was glad when it was fifty-five past ten. Time had passed quickly; Lily's parents hugged her, wishing her succes through their tears; Petunia just said goodbye in a stiff manner. Severus watched Lily stepping on the train.

"I have to go on board, it will depart in five minutes" he told his own mother. She looked at him with a fathomless expression in her black eyes. Then she swallowed strangely. Severus prayed she wasn't going to cry. Fortunately, she simply stated: "And I have to go back home. Goodbye".

Severus pulled his trolley in the train and turned around one last minute. Then suddenly, he felt something odd when his mother hadn't yet moved from her spot, that drove him to wave shortly. She waved back, turned around and started walking away. Quickly, Severus tore away his gaze and searched for the next loo to use for changing into his robes. He couldn't wait to be finally able to wear them...After trying several iron doors that wouldn't open, Severus finally found one that, almost by miracle, did, and he hastily went into the small, draughty space. He took off his coat that, after all, didn't really resemble the attire of a dark wizard after all, to finally pull off his girly smock, and when he was pulling down his too-short jeans, the train suddenly started moving so that he fell, bumping his head against the toilet. Severus cursed. Hastily he threw his pants together with his other dreadful clothing in his trolley and put on his black robes. Through an open window, he heard a high-pitched voice yell: "PETER! YOU FORGOT YOUR SANDWICHES!" Severus looked and saw a plump woman on Platform nine and three quarters running along with the train as if trying to catch up with it.  
Severus ran through the corridor in search for Lily. At last, he heard voices coming from the last compartment. It were boy's voices, rather unpleasantly loud, but then, Severus saw Lily sitting in the corner besides the window. He opened the sliding door. Lily did look at him when he entered, but it was not with the cheerful expression that he had imagined. Her eyes were red and puffy and her face looked even paler than it normally was and wet. She looked back out of the window, pressing her face against it.

"I don't want to talk to you" she said in a constricted voice. This was far from the perfect reunion that Severus had imagined. "Why not?" he asked, not understanding why Lily was upset again.

"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."

This can't be true, Severus thought. Lily had not seen Petunia for who she really was at all. On the contrary, Lily now also blamed him for the fact that 'Tuney' hated her, for some kind of reason impossible to understand! "So what?" he said impatiently.

Lily gave him an angry look. "So she's my sister!" she retorted, like the fact that they were related had turned Petunia into a saint who could do nothing wrong. Someone to be put on a pedestal like the greatest person ever, despite the fact that there was nothing extraordinary about her. She couldn't even do magic, while he, Severus, could! But that had never stopped Lily from idolizing Petunia and taking her anger from their arguments out on him.

"She's just a-" Severus began, but he caught himself just in time. He knew better than to insult Petunia by now. Thankfully, Lily had not heard him this time. "But we're going!" Severus hastily changed the subject, feeling the reality of the situation overwhelm him with joy. "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"

Lily nodded matter-of-factly, wiping away her tears, but then a miracle happened; she sort of smiled. Severus dared to speak to her again.

"You'd better be in Slytherin" he said, happy at the thought.

"Slytherin?" he heard a voice repeat. Severus looked into the direction of the nameless rowdy boys and his eyes locked with ones after glasses, those of a skinny boy with messy black hair who had been looking around for the one who had mentioned Slytherin. The unknown wizard averted his gaze to the one in front of him, a boy half-sitting, half-lying carelessly in his seat whose black hair fell partially over his nose.

"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I'd leave, wouldn't you?" Four-eyes asked his companion. If he had meant it to be a light-hearted joke, he had failed. The boy opposite him remained serious. Severus was glad about that.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin" the boy said, but from the strange lack of proudness in his voice, Severus drew the unpleasant and incomprehensible conclusion that instead of a defense, it was meant as a sad confession.

"Blimey, and I thought you seemed alright!" Four-eyes said. Then something even less comprehensible happened. The boy who had just been sad grinned!

"Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?" he asked. Severus was shocked that someone was talking to Four-eyes in such a friendly way – like the bloke was pleasant company, better than nothing. It was not like he had said something nice to the boy that was now grinning. Four-eyes lifted an invisible sword.

"Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart! Like my dad".

Finally, it had become clear. The feud between Gryffindor and Slytherin was a millennium old. No wonder these two boys chose Gryffindor, for someone who did not think at all it was obviously appealing to be judged for bravery. Severus could not suppress a slight snort.

"Got a problem with that?" Four-eyes asked him.

Severus had waited to be addressed. "No." he lied. "If you're rather brawny than brainy…" he hinted. These unknown wizards apparently liked the idea of fighting with a sword, but they had clearly never paid any thought to the idea of winning a duel fought out with words. The art of sharpening an insult instead of a blade of steel was completely lost on them…Therefore, they would never know the sweet satisfaction of thrusting the sword of wit into their enemy... Severus reveled in this realization.

"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you are neither?"

Four-eyes burst into laughter and Lily stood up. To Severus's horror, she was blushing, as if she felt humiliated for him.

"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment!" she decided loudly, while looking disapprovingly at Four-eyes and his new friend Lickspittle. Four-eyes and Lickspittle made a sound of eager anticipation for Severus that made him feel embarrassed. To make matters worse, he nearly fell, because Lickspittle had stuck out his foot.

"See ya, Snivellus…" Lickspittle called, and as they walked further sat down opposing two older girls, Severus decided that here his train ride with Lily really started. The previous beginning was just like a failed scene that a director cut out of a movie. Now they started over.

From her spot next to the window, Lily watched the passing by of the seemingly endless fields of grass and barley, only interrupted sometimes by a river or a lake. Nothing would ever be the same. Petunia had called her a freak, something that the sister and best friend she had thought she knew would never have done. It was like somebody else's soul had taken over Petunia's body. Unfortunately, the more realistic explanation was that the real Petunia hated her and that it was all her fault for having befriended Severus. Even her parents hadn't been able to make Petunia forgive her, and when they couldn't, nobody could. She missed her parents very much, and felt sick at the thought she wouldn't be seeing them at dinner today. When Lily had first heard the boys in her compartment talking, the things they had told each other – about the mysterious game called Quidditch and the curious jobs they wanted to do after they had left Hogwarts - had sounded terrible, freakish stories from freaks who were separated from normal society for the safety of the 'Muggles'. Even though Lily had wished that she had never met Severus, there was no way to undo it, and now he was all that she had, far away from home, unable to go back. And hearing the enthusiasm in his voice had reminded her of when she had listened to him by the river, getting excited for the first time about a magical school called Hogwarts, and she had started to look forward to it again. Unfortunately one of the boys, the one that had been talking the most, a wizard with strangely messy black hair and glasses, had started to attack her future house, Slytherin, and Severus. Lily was glad that they had left the compartment.

"You got an animal too?" Lily asked Severus. He nodded and grabbed a dark green toad out of his pocket. "Fortunately, Gluingel doesn't do much except for breathing" he said.

Lily put the amphibian on her hand. The toad did not react. "Hello, how are you doing?" she asked in the most cheerful tone she was able to produce. The toad did not move or make any sound. Lily put him on the little table.

"I think I hear the sweets selling witch coming our way.." one of the girls in front of them announced.

That was indeed true; not much later, a witch in brightly-colored robes walked inside their compartment pushed along a sweets-filled cart, and asked everyone if they wanted to buy a treat from her. Severus bought a pasty that he dropped on the dirty ground. He picked it up and took a bite out of it. Lily bought a few cakes and licorice wands.

"Which lesson are you looking forward the most?" she asked Severus.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts" he said. "And you?"

"Potions" she answered. "I read about exploding fluid, flitterbloom and moondew… I can't wait to be able to use magical ingredients. And you can store your potion, for when you later need it. I'm only worried that because I'm Muggle-born, I'd be the worst in class"

Severus stared at her. "I bet you won't" he said. "By the way, did you know that a lot of great potioneers were from Slytherin? Arsenius Jigger, Vindictus Veridian, Aurelia Budge, Zygmunt Budge and Gregory the Smarmy…"

"I didn't know that" Lily said, interested. "What made them famous?"

"Well, Arsenius Jigger wrote a few famous books on potions – our Magical Drafts and Potions and Potions Opuscule. He was co-founder of the apothecary at Diagon Alley. Vindictus Veridian wrote another book on potions, The Most Powerful Concoctions For Your Most Condemned Antagonists. Aurelia Budge was famous for her Laughing Potion, that her great-great grandson Zygmunt refined. Fortunately he also did useful things, such as discovering the properties of hundreds of secret plants and creatures, and writing the Book of Potions. I will lend you mine at school. Because Zygmunt Budge really was a great potioneer. And Gregory the Smarmy made Gregory's Unctuous Unction, that makes the drinker believe that the drinker is their best friend."

"That Book of Potions sounds interesting, Severus! It will be a great addition to Magical Drafts and Potions" Lily said.

One of the girls in front of them said in an annoyed voice: "Not all great potioneers were from Slytherin. Linfred of Stinchcombe was from Gryffindor. And Quintia McQuoid from Ravenclaw"

"I didn't say all" Severus said in a low voice.

"I'm glad the weather is so great!" Lily quickly changed the subject. "Look at that clear blue sky! Isn't it nice?"

"It seems like it is going to be a long summer" Severus added happily.

The train ride itself was long as well. Gradually, the blue of the sky turned darker and darker. One of the girls in front of them said: "Looks like we're almost there". Lily looked outside the window again. It was dark now, so she couldn't see where they were. She thought she saw trees, and rocky roads. A voice called that they would be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes time, and that their luggage would be brought to the school for them. The corridor suddenly flooded with talking students. Everyone was in a hurry to leave the train. Severus stood up. "Finally! We're there!" he shouted, flapping his arms.  
At last, Lily felt the excitement she had hoped to feel. What would be awaiting them? Severus and Lily followed the other students towards the platform. It was very different from King's Cross. It could hardly be called a platform at all; it was just a large black rock that was flatter than the others. For the rest, there was no signpost. Everyone waited, until they heard very loud footsteps and saw a lantern making its way through the crowd.

"Firs' years! Firs' years come with me!" a very large man with bushy hair shouted over the crowd with a voice that befell their ears like the sound of drums. It was Hagrid! Lily was happy to hear his voice. After a while, Lily and Severus found themselves between a group of about fourty students their age. Next to Lily, a sandy-haired girl stared wide-eyed at Hagrid.

"Everyone's there? Great. Follow me" Hagrid said. He led them down a path of which the trees around it swallowed the remaining light whole, leaving only darkness, until...  
The road made a turn and then a great, dark lake was visible, illuminated by the light of the stars and the moon. On the top of a rocky mountain stood an imposing and majestic building of stone that had withstand a thousand of years, illuminated by the light of countless torches, with turrets and towers looking like they came straight from the Middle Ages, untouched by modern times. Lily, who had been imagining something more haunted-looking, finally understood why Severus had been so excited about Hogwarts. The castle had an aura of wonder. At the shore of the lake, where white waves were softly ebbing against the silver sand, there was a line of dark, small wooden boats.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid instructed. Lily and Severus walked past the shore until they found a free boat at last. They climbed in it, along with the blonde girl. Hagrid just fitted in one boat. When everyone was safe in their boats, Hagrid bellowed "FORWARD!". The boats started moving on their own. Lily was delighted by the many uses of magic. They sailed towards a large cliff and there was a gap with an overgrown tunnel; it ended in an underground harbor as forsaken-looking as the platform.  
They were one of the last to step out of the boats.

"GLUINGEL!" Severus suddenly shouted. Some looked over their shoulders in annoyance.

"What is it, have you lost him?" Lily gasped. She felt tears appear in her eyes. "Well, at least toads can swim…"

"Not here. In the train" Severus whispered. "I forgot that he was still on that table"

"How stupid of you" a girl with mousy-colored hair interjected. "It will be your fault when your toad dies"

"Shut up!" Severus said loudly.

Lily put her hand on one of Severus's and said: "At the end of the year, we'll ask the machinist or conductor if they have found him." Then his hands, that were balled to fists, relaxed. They climbed after the others the large, grey stone steps, until they found themselves in a shadowy spot in the field of grass before the castle, that loomed in front of them. They walked towards the entrance: a large oak door. Hagrid knocked on the door three times and the sound reverberated through the silence.  
The witch that opened the door looked like the magical version of how Lily had always imagined a schoolteacher to look like. She was tall and stood very upright. Her dark hair was pulled back into a meticulous bun, and while she did look welcoming, she did not smile.

"Firs' years, Professor McGonagall" Hagrid announced.

"Thank you, Hagrid" Professor McGonagall said.

When the great wooden door opened, Lily got the feeling that she had entered one of the ballrooms Petunia had always fawned over. There was something special about the very large foyer, lit by torches and ending in a marble staircase. The ceiling was as high as a church's. Lily had never seen a more beautiful hall. They heard the rumoring of a lot of voices coming from the door on the right, but Professor McGonagall led them into another, empty hall. They needed to stand closely together and Lily heard Severus's nervous breathing.

"Gryffindor pride …" the boys they met at the train sang. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat. "Some seem to think that they will be able to choose their own house." she said. "Unfortunately, while our Sorting Hat often takes the choice of the student in consideration, this will only be the decisive factor in a very few cases. For those of you who are not familiar with the Sorting Ceremony, this is our ancient tradition that will tell you in which Hogwarts House you belong -Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Every house has their own Head of House, and I am proud to say that I am chosen as the Head of House of Gryffindor. Your House is like a family away from home. Most of your free time, including classes and nighttime, you will spend with your housemates. You are expected to give the best of yourself to your house, since all your triumphs at Hogwarts will give you house points and for all your rulebreakings you will lose them just as quickly. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will earn the House Cup. So do not disappoint your house, nor yourself. I encourage you to get the most out of yourself at Hogwarts. The Sorting Ceremony will begin in a few minutes, and it will take place in front of the rest of the school. Here, you can prepare yourself a bit before I'll come back when they are ready for you. Be quit." And then, she strode off towards the hall.

A dark-haired boy with freckles said: "I hope I'll be Sorted in Hufflepuff!"

"Me too" a blonde-haired boy said, "my best friend is Sorted there. Hufflepuff is the best!"

A stooped girl with brown braids said: "Well, luckily for you, that's where the majority goes!"

Lily regretted not having a mirror in her pocket. What if there was something stuck between her teeth or on her nose? Or her hair would look bad? Everyone would see it. However, she had not much time to dwell on that, because Professor McGonagall had come back. "Make a line, the Sorting Ceremony's about to begin!" she said solemnly.

There was a nervous rumoring, and the first-years shuffled a bit before they eventually formed a queue, and Lily and Severus were one of the last. Lily felt eager anticipation like she had felt when she had been about to perform a play or a dance at her old school. She linked her hand with Severus's cold one. When they marched through the hall, her excitement made place for nervousness. The Great Hall was unlike everything she had expected, except for the fact that it was great. It surpassed all her expectations. There were four very long tables, at which hundreds of witches and wizards were sitting, behind golden plates. At the table in the end sat the teachers, and in the middle of them what had to be the Headmaster, a wise-looking old man with a very large white beard, wearing purple robes. But the most beautiful thing about the Great Hall was the ceiling. It looked like there was no ceiling – where the ceiling must have been was a sky full of stars.

"Severus, look!" Lily said.

"Impressive, right? I am trying to find Capricorn and Aquarius" he said.

But there was no time for that, because Professor McGonagall put a very strange-looking hat on a stool. In a way, it was good that Petunia had not gone to Hogwarts, Lily thought, because she would have insisted that the hat would be cleaned before she would ever want to put it on her head. It looked like it had been dug up from under the earth. There was a silence and then, a fold in the hat opened.

"_Oh, I might not win a competition  
Of the world's most beautiful hat  
But I will be the only thinking one  
that you magicians ever looked at.  
I am the Sorting Hat, well-informed and  
I will tell you where you belong  
Trust my judgement, as those who did before  
And listen to my famous song  
Perhaps you will become a Gryffindor  
Like my former owner Godric, a wizard most brave  
If in the face of danger you will not run  
And there are others that you would save  
Or maybe you will be in Ravenclaw  
If you find no problem too difficult to solve  
Like the fair and clever Rowena  
She invented ever-changing rooms, staircases that revolve  
In Hufflepuff, we find the kind at heart,  
always hard-working, never complaining once  
Helga made no difference whom she liked  
Only the lax she found a dunce  
Or, maybe you will fit in another House,  
If you are ambitious like Salazar no-one could befool  
Although you'd be preferably the purest of blood  
In Slytherin you'll contribute very greatly in our school_"

Everybody clapped. The Sorting Hat bowed and then became quite lifeless-looking again, like an ordinary hat. It seemed that Professor McGonagall was carrying a roll of parchment all of sudden. She took a step forward.

"When I call your name, you will put on the Sorting hat and sit on the stool to be sorted" she announced.

Severus desperately tried to calm his nerves. He nearly jumped when Professor McGonagall called the first name.

"Allington, Rainbow!" A brown-haired, rather large girl with freckles and a double chin sat down on the stool and put the hat on her head. "RAVENCLAW!" the hat cried out almost instantly. Smiling smugly, Rainbow walked towards them and sat down at the table second from the left.

"Avery, Gilad", a dark-haired boy with lopsided eyes walked to the stool. When he put the hat on his head, it took a while before he became a Slytherin. Everyone at the second table to the right applauded.

"Ackerman, Quincey" became the first Hufflepuff and sat down at the table on the far right. A few other unremarkable people were Sorted.

Then, Professor McGonagall called: "Black, Sirius!" and Lickspittle, or as he was called by everyone else, Sirius Black, stepped forward. He looked as if he was about to get sick, but a few girls in the line stepped on their toes to see more of him; some stepped aside. A few whispered. When Black put the hat on his dark-haired head, it took the Sorting Hat a few more minutes to decide and Severus hoped that this was because the hat was doubting whether it should put him in Ravenclaw or in Hufflepuff, or nowhere. Unfortunately the hat eventually cried out: "GRYFFINDOR!" and, with a look of great relief, Black walked nonchalantly to the table on the far left, which exploded with cheers.

"Bones, Cooper" became another Gryffindor.

"Brown, Daniel" became another Ravenclaw.

"Bulstrode, Vadim" became another Slytherin.

"Cabbage, John" became another Hufflepuff and he let out a victorious cry that Severus did not understand. Amongst the cheering no-one heard his snort.

"Crabbe, Vincent" turned out to be a Slytherin.

"Cromwall, Ainsley" became a Hufflepuff.

When Severus heard "Emerson, Aster", who was Sorted into Ravenclaw, he started to pay attention again. This was a moment he had looked forward to.

"Evans, Lily!" Professor McGonagall called. With trembling legs, Lily walked towards the stool. She was clearly nervous and put on the hat.

"GRYFFINDOR!" it called.

The hat had made a mistake. Lily handed the hat to Professor McGonagall, and she was expected to walk to the Gryffindor table. But before she did, she turned around. And gave Severus a sad little smile. It was a mistake, but a mistake that no-one else was bothered about, apparently, because there was no-one who protested. Severus was angry at Professor McGonagall, and at the Sorting Hat. How did that hat know that Lily belonged in Gryffindor, with its stupid little song? Black made room for her on the Gryffindor table but Lily ignored it and walked past him with her arms folded. Severus did not register the students after Lily. He was kind of in a daze, but came back to reality hearing: "Gibbon, Linus".

Linus Gibbon, a wizard with dark hair looking determined was Sorted in Slytherin.

"Greengrass, Lorelei", the annoying girl from the boat became a Slytherin too, and her brother "Greengrass, Seppy" a Ravenclaw.

When Severus heard "Lupin, Remus!" he looked uninterestedly and saw a very pale and sick-looking boy walking unconfidently towards the stool. Remus Lupin became a Gryffindor. Then Professor McGonagall called: "Mulciber, Titus!" It was the boy with the birthmark and he became a Slytherin. "Nott, Accario" was Sorted in Slytherin as well. Severus wished that the Hat would hurry up because he was anxious to be Sorted himself. He was especially impatient when the hat did more than five minutes about deciding the house of a short rat-faced boy, which turned out to be another Gryffindor. When Professor McGonagall called: "Potter, James!" Severus jolted when he saw it was Four-eyes. Hufflepuff, Severus thought desperately. Hufflepuff! Unfortunately, James Potter quickly joined the table of red and gold like his friend Black, encouraged by loud applause. They said that there weren't a lot of students Sorted in Gryffindor, but Severus had seen a lot of them already. Mary McDonald and Marlene McKinnon were Sorted there as well.

"Rosier, Evan", a boy with black, wavy hair became a Slytherin.

"Selwyn, Morgana!" Severus felt tension. Much too soon, the girl named Morgana became a Slytherin. Severus's heart beat faster, especially when "Silverlake, Peace!" became a Hufflepuff in a few seconds.

"Snape, Severus!"

His name sounded strange called out by Professor McGonagall. Everyone looked at him now. _"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?"_ Severus despised Gryffindor. He walked forward and put on the hat.

"SLYTHERIN!" it cried out.

Severus walked to the second table on the right, and saw everyone cheering for him. There was a free seat beside the Slytherin prefect, a tall blonde wizard who patted Severus on the back when he sat down next to him. He was wearing a badge that read _Slytherin Prefect, Lucius Malfoy_.

"Congratulations" Lucius Malfoy said. Severus was still wondering why Lily was Sorted in Gryffindor and not in Slytherin with him. As if he had read his thoughts, Malfoy added: "The old Sorting Hat makes a lot of mistakes. Sometimes it sorts too soon, like with that Evans girl. About you it was right, though. You are a nice addition."

That made Severus feel better. "Thanks." he mumbled.

"Truesoul, Sunny", a plain girl with braids, barely touched the hat and it yelled: "HUFFLEPUFF!" Looking very disappointed, she walked to the Hufflepuff table.

In the end, more Slytherin first years joined them: "Wilkes, Marcus", a large brown-haired wizard and "Yaxley, Corban", a tall very light haired boy.

To everyone, a boy with a badge that said: Furgus Travers – Head boy asked in a raised voice: "Who is going to win the House Cup this year?!"

Most of the Slytherins chanted: "Green and silver…" with a low and bored cheer that sounded like 'huuhuu'.

"Again!" Travers demanded. "Who's going to win the House Cup?"

"GREEN AND SILVER!" everyone at the table now screamed, and made an even louder noise. They also slammed with their fists or goblets on the table or with their cutlery on their plates, and Severus half-heartedly joined them, while his other neighbor Wilkes nearly stabbed his hand.

"And what do we do to win?" Travers asked.

"We do our bleeding best" the boy with the assymetric eyes piped.

"But what if we do not succeed in winning?" Travers asked slyly. There was a silence. "Do we let the Cup pass us by?"

"Of course not!" Yaxley said indignantly.

"So if we can't win by winning, what do we do?" Travers asked.

"We kill everyone else!" someone joked. Travers grinned. "No" he said, "We shall help the other Houses with losing!"

Everyone, including Severus, laughed, except for one girl and her friend. "That's childish!" she said reproachfully. She was the annoying one with the ash brown hair from the boat. No-one listened to her. Then suddenly, the wizard that had to be Albus Dumbledore stood up. He was tall, with long silver hair and beard, and rumored to be the greatest wizard of his time.

"Welcome, old and new students! Soon, another year at Hogwarts will begin! It's better to be prepared, so without further ado, here is the banquet!"

Everyone clapped as Dumbledore sat down in his chair again. Severus wondered if he had missed something, if he had zoned out just after the beginning and just before the end of a speech. Then, the dishes in front of them suddenly contained the most delicious-looking food Severus had ever seen. Everyone started taking it at once, pushing each other away and someone yelled: "WILKES! GREEDY BASTARD! He took five of these steaks!" However, one by one, five new steaks appeared.

Severus managed to grab some roast beef, bacon and potatoes and realized he had been hungry. Quickly he started eating it. Like he had expected, it was the best thing he had ever tasted. It was even better than the fish and chips his father had bought out of frustration about his mother's cooking skills, on rare occasions. There suddenly was orange juice in the goblets, that Severus had never seen before. Pumpkin juice, he thought happily, a drink popular with magical people, but not with Muggles. Then, suddenly, his own goblet exploded – pumpkin juice splattered all over the table, on the other Slytherins faces, and on his robes.

"What did you do!" Wilkes screamed. Severus was bewildered, not understanding what had happened. He looked quickly at the Gryffindor table to see if Lily had noticed the accident, and then it became too clear because he saw Potter and Black looking as if they were crying with laughter, and had forgotten the food on their plates. Lily was shouting something at them, crushing Severus's hope that she hadn't realized. A few other Gryffindors were looking in Severus's direction. He was enraged. Magic was forbidden outside the lessons!

"The food looks nasty now!" someone complained.

"Clean that juice up, Snape!" Yaxley demanded.

"Tergeo" Lucius Malfoy said lazily and with a flick of his wand, the pumpkin juice disappeared and the food looked good again. Severus was glad that the Prefect had helped him.

"I don't think Black and that other Gryffindor like you very much, Snape" a boy with yet-black hair said coldly.

"I don't even know those idiots!" Severus spat.

"So your father is well-known, Yaxley?" Mulciber asked him. Yaxley nodded. He glanced around to see if anyone was listening, then began: "My father is the senior undersecretary of the current Minister for Magic of Scotland. My mother works at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. They couldn't accompany me to the castle, but that's okay. I have a very good bond with my aunt Agnessa…"

Severus realized that he had no idea who the Minister for Magic of Britain even was; the only paper that his mother ever read was a Muggle one. She didn't want anything to do with the magical world.

"Who is from England?" someone asked. Malfoy, Travers, Wilkes and some others raised their hands. "It's good that Nobby Leach is gone, isn't it?" Malfoy asked. All wizards from England laughed except for Severus, who felt frustrated.

"I'm from Ireland. My parents live in Firthwaite…" the boy with the weird eyes said.

"Really?" Mulciber asked. "By the River Barrow?"

"No, more eastwards" the boy answered.

It became very cold; to Severus's surprise, a ghost wearing chains floated towards an empty seat next to a girl, looking around at the first years. "Welcome to Slytherin, newcomers. I am the Bloody Baron, your House ghost" he said in a sepulchral voice.

"How many people have you killed?" the wizard next to him asked in awe. Most of the others looked displeased. The Bloody Baron stared at his empty plate, then he said gravely: "One less than I would have if I had still been alive…"

The savoury foods had changed into the most elaborate dessert collection that Lily had ever seen, more than even her mother had ever made: ice cream, apple pie, black forest gateau, treacle tarts, cheesecake, doughnuts, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding, eclairs, trifle, and tiramisu…It was wonderful! However, when she thought about Petunia, sitting alone eating a normal dessert, and the fact that she was in Gryffindor instead of in Slytherin, she was not hungry at all.

"Have an éclair" the boy from the train with the grey eyes, Sirius Black, said in an affected voice, but she did not reply. Black laughed in a barking way. He was terrible, together with Potter. Lily had tried to stop Black and Potter when they were bewitching Severus's goblet, but unfortunately, she hadn't succeeded and she had seen how all the Slytherins had become angry at him.

"Have a piece of treacle tart" the black-haired, wide-faced girl on the other side of her that she recognized as Mary McDonald said.

"No, thank you" Lily replied.

"Have a piece of cheesecake, then!" Mary said.

Lily shook her head.

"Have some…" Mary frowned, "weird dish that no-one wanted to touch yet. I bet it makes you light up in the dark"

Lily looked at the table. "Actually, I'd like that!" she said, and put half of the Jell-O on her plate.

"So how did all of you end up here?" a blonde girl that Lily recognized as Marlene McKinnon, the daughter of the woman from Diagon Alley, asked. "I received the letter out of nowhere – my parents thought it was a practical joke again. I'm Muggle-born, you see!"

Lily felt instantly relieved. "I'm a Muggle-born too" she said, sighing. "My sister couldn't come with me, and…" Suddenly, she felt her eyes stinging, and to her horror, she realized that she was crying again. Tears were dripping on her Jell-O.

Mary put an arm around her. "Don't worry" she said. "Do you have an owl? Then you can write a letter to your sister when we are in the dormitory."

"Thanks. I am sorry to b-be annoying" Lily said, sniffing, feeling better that there was someone who understood her. She glared at Potter and Black in the case they were laughing again, but fortunately, this time they weren't. She took a deep breath. "I-its just that…I miss my sister, and my parents. But you are right. I can write them."

With quivering hand, she took a spoon of her transparent blue pudding.

"My dad is a wizard, my mother is a Muggle" Mary said. "My mother had a friend, but she didn't know that friend was a witch. The friend had been practicing the whole year to participate in a strathspey competition…But my mother won! Her friend turned her eyes in those of a chameleon's. My mother didn't want to leave the house anymore… Her friend's brother was my father, and he turned her eyes back to normal and she was forever grateful! Then they had me and my mum was glad my eyes turned out normally. They were very glad that I was a witch! We live not far from Godric's Hollow, and we have more magical friends than Muggles. My mum has read 'Hogwarts: A history'. She kept saying that 'Gryffindoyl' seemed such an excellent House, so she will be pleased, I think"

The pale boy called Remus Lupin had said nothing, though something he smiled faintly. Lily wondered what was wrong with him. She hoped he was not as ill as he looked. The short wizard with the pointy nose called Peter Pettigrew let out a high-pitched laugh every time someone said something that he thought of as funny. Lily felt sorry for him because Peter himself was ignored by all the others.

The desserts disappeared. Albus Dumbledore had stood up again. "Now that I hope you are all satisfied, I have a few more announcements to make. You are not permitted to set foot in the forest on the Hogwarts grounds – there are dangerous creatures there. Magic is not allowed outside the classes. Quidditch trials start the fifth week of the term, and you can contact Madam Hooch if you are interested in playing in your House's Quidditch team. Now, let's sing!"

Lyrics appeared in ribbon in the air and everyone sang along. Lily liked singing, so she felt a bit better, but Potter and Black ruined the song with the most horrible tunes and shouting lyrics of their own. "Swartshog, Swartshog, Waggy Horty Swartshog, teach us nothing please! Where the teachers are old and bald…Where the girls all have scabby knees…Where the Snitehrlys have rotting brains…"

Lily sang the proper song loudly and clearly.

"This was beautiful! Excellent!" Dumbledore said when they were done, wiping away his tears. "Now, I think it is time for bedtime. Have a good night's sleep everyone!"

"First years, come with me!" the Gryffindor Prefect, Frank Longbottom, said. He had stood up. Lily looked at the Slytherin table. The first years, amongst them Severus, were guided to the dungeons by their own Prefect, a tall, blonde-haired wizard.

"What are you looking at?" Marlene asked her.

"My friend is sorted in Slytherin" Lily explained. She still felt bad about being sorted in Gryffindor, with the unknown or unpleasant students – even though Mary had seemed kind-hearted, and Marlene did not seem that bad either.

"Slytherin!" Marlene cried out. "A friend from Slytherin! That is a contradiction"

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

"It takes a certain spirit to be chosen for that house." Marlene explained. "People from Slytherin have allies, not friends. Well, fair-weather friends. Mary told me that there are inter-house friendships between Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, between Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, but not often between Slytherins and those of other houses...That is very rare. You'd better make some real friends in Gryffindor"

That was new for Lily, who felt hurt. "I know Severus from my hometown. He lived a few blocks away" she said. Marlene said nothing anymore. They walked through tapestries, and hidden doorways, until Frank paused in front of a very big lady wearing pink, practicing opera singing that, Lily thought, didn't sound quite right.

"Password?" she asked.

"Repulsae Nescia" Frank said.

The portrait swung forward and slammed shut again. "Not again. PEEVES!" Frank yelled. Peeves looked like a ghost. A transparent little man with a mean expression appeared.

"Ickle little Firstyears!" he shouted. Mary screamed when he made faces at her. "Go away now" Frank said, pointing. Peeves flew through students and laughed.

"Go away!" Frank yelled. "You are not welcome here. Go annoy yourself or I will use my Poltergeist-destroying spell!"

Peeves looked frightened and with a plop he was gone. Frank said the password again and they climbed into the portrait hole. Behind it was a very cosy room with comfortable looking chairs. They walked past it towards doors; the boys went left and the girls went right. They climbed long winding stairs. Marlene, Mary and two other girls named Steffani and Cindy changed into their nightgowns and quickly shut their eyes, but when they were trying to sleep, Lily took a piece of parchment and an owl out of her trunk, and a feather and quill. She had never written with a quill before, so she practiced first on normal paper. Then she started writing by the moonlight shining through the small window.

_Dear mummy, daddy and Tuney_, she wrote.  
_I arrived at Hogwarts and it is really nice here. The castle is beautiful, and very big. Candles float here, staircases move, and portraits talk. There was lots of delicious food. I share my dormitory with four other girls, but we get along well. I hope you are all doing fine. I miss you very much. I hope to hear from you soon. P.S: Tuney, I hope you are not mad anymore if you read this. Believe me, you would not have liked Hogwarts – the hat that I needed to wear wasn't washed in ages! It was a miraculous experience though, because it talked!  
I told everyone that I have a great sister - I hope that you enjoy your time at St. Adelaides All Girls Boarding School too!_

_Love,_  
_Lily_

The letter was stained by tears, but it was still readable and Lily did not have the energy left to write it over. She carefully put the letter in one of her envelopes, wrote her address on it and bound the letter to one of Elisedds talons. Lily opened the small paned window and watched her owl fly away through the starry night sky. She hoped everything would go well and her letter would arrive. She thought about Severus, and she hoped that he wasn't feeling as lonely as she did right now.  
Down in the dungeons of Slytherin, Severus was laying in his own dormitory together with Wilkes, Rosier, Bulstrode, Crabbe and Goyle. He was the only one who was still awake, listening to the splashing of the lake. He looked forward to the next day, though this one had been quite different from what he had expected.


End file.
